Colorado - Mesa Verde Nat Park

Continuing east I take a day to visit Mesa Verde National Park, a place I visited 7 years ago with a dear friend.  This is more than a little nostalgic for me, since I'd been hoping she could have joined me for part of this trip, but was unable to make it.  Seven years ago we roughed it in a tent here for one night, but had a fabulous experience touring Cliff Palace.  This time, I stayed in the town of Cortez and spent some time touring parts of the Park we hadn't visited.

Some beautiful art work by local artists graces both the inside and outside of the Visitor's Center, whose architecture is a modern interpretation of a cliff dwelling.

The Visitor's Center has a mock-up of the ladders into the cliff dwellings and the tunnels you sometimes have to crawl through so that people can try them out and see if they can manage both!  Smart idea!

He knows he's safe in here this time of the year!