Mesa
Verde was established as a National Park by FDR in 1906 and then became
a World Heritage Site in 1978. We were so glad we made the stop here
and felt like we learned so much at our very first family visit to a National Park.
While we opted to pay a little extra to have a later departure from our campground, we discovered we could have dropped our camper at the Mesa Verde Visitor Center, but we still felt better paying and extra $7 to leave Sophie in an air conditioned camper.
We also learned that Mesa Verde has a campground located 4 miles inside of park. If we had known that, we probably would have tried to get a site there to cut down on our drive time in and out of the park. Lesson learned for later.
Other discoveries about the park were that when you arrive at the Mesa Verde Visitor Center, you are at the very front of the park. To see any of the sites you must drive further into the park, which takes at least an hour. We had no idea about that ahead of time. We also goofed and stood in the wrong line waiting to get the kids their first Jr. Ranger packet to complete (20 minutes wasted in a line for a tour we didn't have time to take!).
Leaving the Visitor's Center, we picked up our annual National Park pass. It would get us into the six parks we planned to see on this trip and would be good through the following September. It is also good for national monuments like Lookout Point Park in Chattanooga.
After getting our park pass, we followed the road up to the Mesa. We were surprised that there was a United States Post Office at the top. We had picked up postcards at the Visitor's Center, but without cell service we couldn't look up addresses to send anything. Word to the wise: Bring an address book!
One of the highlights at the National Parks was getting the kids involved in the Jr. Ranger program. This functioned as a significant portion of our homeschool for the month of September.
To become a Jr. Ranger, you pick up at booklet at the Visitor Center and then complete the activities for your age. When you complete the appropriate number of activities, you go back to the Visitor Center (or find a ranger elsewhere in the park) and they review your book and then swear you in as a Jr. Park Ranger.
At Mesa Verde, you have to be at least six years old to become a Jr. Ranger. We later discovered that the age range for this activity varied by park. Isaac was really bummed not to get to become a Jr. Ranger at Mesa Verde :(
We decided that Jack should complete the Jr. Ranger program right away so that we didn't run out of time. At Mesa Verde this meant a nature scavenger hunt for items you see in the park, watching a video about the park, hearing a ranger speak, and finding answers to questions in a museum.
After getting sworn in, Jack wore his first badge proudly. Isaac was somewhat appeased by a sticker, but it wasn't quite the same as the little plastic ranger badge that his big brother walked away with.
After completing the Jr. Ranger Program, we drove through the park, stopping to check out the views at Navajo Canyon. The kids were glad they brought their binoculars (or binoculators as Isaac likes to say!).
Even though we had to forgo the cliff dwellings tour due to time restraints (which I was bummed about), we still saw quite a few of the dwellings from the canyon above. Below you can see a good view of one of the cliff dwellings across the canyon from us.
More
cliff dwellings. I hope we can go back some day and do the actual
walking tour down to these homes built into the side of the canyon!
After completing some short hikes to view Navajo Canyon, we did a quick hike to tour Coyote Village – which was a favorite spot for our boys.
When we left Coyote Village Isaac wanted to know where the coyotes were.
As we left the park and headed back to our campsite, Isaac was very concerned that we didn't have the camper, or Sophie with us. Every time we had to leave the camper (or Soph) behind at a campground, Isaac was pretty upset until we were all back together again.
Another funny Isaac-ism was that for the ENTIRE first week of our trip, he would constantly ask us when we were going home. It took a long time to help him realize that the camper was our home for the duration of the trip.
Even though we didn't do a cliff dwelling tour, we were able to see a good portion of Mesa Verde and still get back to our campground pack up and leave our campsite right at 3pm.
We had about a two hour drive ahead of us which meant we would be able to get our next campsite set up before dark.
Our original plan for this trip had been to head across southern Utah to Zion National Park, but we ended up having to cut out Zion (and Monument Valley, and Lake Powell) and later Canyonlands National Parks due to our delayed departure.
Instead of seeing the Mighty Five (the five National Parks in southern Utah), we settled for seeing three. Which were still AMAZING, and we hope to go back in a few years to see the others.
The next stop on this trip was Moab, where we opted to stay for two nights. I will be posting about that portion of our trip in my next blog post.
Trip Stats
Camping Locations: Pickwick Landing State Park in Tenn., Gore Landing City Park in Okla., Wallydocking in Guymon, OK, Family Base Camp in Alamosa, Colo., Mesa Verde RV Resort in Mancos, Colo.
States Covered: TN > GA > AL > MS > TN > MS > TN > AR > OK > NM > CO
Significant Stops: Black Mesa, OK (highest point), Mesa Verde National Park
Daily Miles Traveled: 227 miles ⎮ 445 miles ⎮ 403 miles ⎮ 325 miles ⎮ 191 miles
TOTAL Miles Traveled: 1,591 miles
Days on the Road: 6
Utah Road Trip Diaries: Day 6 started slower than we anticipated because Isaac was up in the nightlight, which meant I was up in the night. After a little extra sleep and a cup of coffee I was ready to start our day. We left Sophie in our camper at the RV Park we had stayed at for an extra $7 until 3pm and headed to our first National Park. We got off to a rocky start because we’d were told to get our National Park stamp for our special passport behind the ranger desk. We thought they meant the ticket line so I stood in line for an extra 20 minutes when I didn’t have to 😏 But we got our stamp and Jack got started on his first Jr. Ranger Program to wan his first badge. We drove up the Mesa to the museum and were surprised to find a working post office at the top! After touring the museum we drove on to the Mesa Top Loop where we viewed the Navajo Canyon and saw the cliff dwellings. The boys were excited about all the carved out villages in the canyon walls. We finished at the Farview sites where we checked out Coyote Village — Isaac wanted fo know where the coyotes were. We Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do a guided tour but enjoyed the museum, Mesa Top Loop and Coyote Village at Farview. Jack completed the Jr. Ranger program and we collected our first stamp in our National Park Passport. After our tour we headed back to camp — Isaac was very concerned about not having the camper or Sophie with us. Once we were all back together we packed up and headed on to Moab...
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