Mesa Verde National Park – Day 27

At this point, we decided to head back east so we’d have more time with our families.  We stopped at Mesa Verde National Park to visit the Pueblo ruins.  Most of the ruins were closed due to it being so late in the season, but we did do a guided tour of the Cliff Palace.

We learned a lot about the lives of the people there – and it was hard.  They lived in these dwellings for 700 years, leaving the area in about 1200 AD.  Typically, the women got married when they were 13 and had a child every year of her married life.  They would have to climb up these cliff walls by means of little holes with a child on her back and a 5-gallon jug on her head (which could be filled with waste from her family)!

The fall colors have been fantastic the whole trip – but I think they were the most magnificent here.  The red, orange and yellow leaves covered the shrubs that covered the mountains.  

The next day, we drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.  We drove through a pass that was snow covered (and being covered).  We cheated this night – and spent the night in a hotel.