We made it out on a short trip last week that included two nights camping in the National Forest and a night at the lodge at Mesa Verde National Park.

The first night camping was in the Jemez Mountains near a spot that I went camping at last year and just fell in love with.  Unfortunately this year somebody else was already at my favorite little camping spot by the creek.  The spot we ended up at instead was still surrounded by lots of gorgeous tall trees, it just didn’t have the creek.  It was the perfect place to stop for a night on the way up to Mesa Verde.

Camping in the Jemez Mountains

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Mesa Verde National Park is less than 45 minutes from Durango where I grew up.  It’s one of the places people visit when they visit Durango.  It’s the sort of place one doesn’t go at all when living in Durango.  My mom says she took me there once when I was a baby, but I have no memory of it at all.  I’ve always felt a little like I got jipped since I never got to go.  But that has now been remedied.

I know that verde means green in Spanish, but for whatever strange reason when I would hear Mesa Verde, I always thought ‘red’.  Having visited there has helped a bit to get that misconception out of my head.

There is a lodge in the park named Far View Lodge and it did live up to it’s name with sweeping views.  The views were definitely the highlight of staying at the lodge and breakfast out on the patio was super pleasant.  I have to admit I felt super spoiled staying there because as a kid my impression of National Parks were of places where one found a patch of dirt for a tent.  Staying in a lodge room feels so plush.

Mesa Verde is known as one of the best archeological sites with many cliff-dwellings and other ruins.  I have to admit that ruins of old places are kind of something I don’t really get that excited about.  They just look like dilapidated buildings to me and most of the stuff they say about the people that lived there seems like guesses at best.  Mostly I was there because I liked the idea of staying at the lodge in the middle of nowhere.  But since I was there, it seemed like we should check out the ruins.

Most of the cliff-dwellings require going on a paid tour to see them.  After seeing the crowds and some annoyingly loud kids at the museum where tickets can be purchased, we decided that we didn’t really want to go on a tour and would stick to the cliff-dwelling that is open to just walk around.  Unfortunately the trail to it was closed due to a rock slide and we had to make do with a view from across the way.

We ended up taking another trail 1.25 miles out to some petroglyphs.  It would have been a bit more enjoyable had we planned for a hike.  The way out to the petroglyphs I felt fine, but by the way back I was sorely wishing for a drink and a snack.  I also fail to get very excited about ancient graffiti, but it was a very neat hike along the side of the canyon with rock staircases and a few narrow passages.

Petroglyph Hike

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After the hike we had a much-deserved lunch and then left the park for another night of camping in the National Forest in Colorado.  I know there are a bunch more ruins and things that we didn’t get the chance to see, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out.  It’s a pretty area and I wouldn’t mind going back if the opportunity presented itself.  I also don’t feel a pressing need to go back.

Clearly it’s the type of thing that some people are very into.  There were license plates there from dozens of different states and people at the restaurant there speaking languages I didn’t recognize.  If one is into archeological-type things then it’s clearly a must-see destination.  For me, I’m glad to have seen it but would probably be happier going to a new place next time.

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This week I have journeyed from Socorro, NM to San Diego, CA via a couple of nights in Tuscon.  Things of this week involve lots of cool places, some of which I will make full posts about later.

The Catwalk

The Catwalk was our first cool stop of the trip, a couple hours out of Socorro.  It was a great place to get out of the car for a few hours and stretch our legs.  It is built in a skinny canyon with a creek that flows at the bottom and consists of a metal walk-way that is attached to the side of the cliffs.  A gorgeous location and a fun place to walk!

Kartchner Caverns State Park

Kartchner Caverns State Park is in Arizona.  It’s a limestone cave that is still ‘living’- actively growing formations.  Tour rules don’t allow cameras or phones in the cave, but you can hit Google up for some pictures if you like.

Saguaro National Park

We went on a day hike in Saguaro National Park.  The Saguaro cactus are the iconic cactus of the desert even though they only grow in a fairly limited area.  They are fairly fascinating and also massive.  They can live for over 200 years, grow as tall as a four story building and weigh 7 tons!!!

Driving

This week has featured a lot of driving.  The drive through the Gila National Forrest was gorgeous and the area still had some snow in places left from a recent storm, adding contrast and changing the way the landscape looked.  Driving to Kartchner Caverns I got the first speeding ticket of my life.  Driving out of Tuscon was kind of cool because there are more Saguaro Cactus and they each seem to have their own personality- some have no arms, some have lots of arms all twisty like they’re trying to reach to scratch in that place the just can’t reach.  The rest of the journey across Arizona was desolate and kind of monotonous, but traffic was fairly light and it wasn’t too bad.

After entering California, there were some cool Sand Dunes, and then a while later we started climbing up through these cool hills/mountains that had very neat looking large rocks on them.  Then came a bit of National Forrest and the decent into San Diego.  Since I don’t spend much time in large cities, the traffic and busyness are kind of a shock to the system, but in some way, it’s always exciting to be coming into a big city.

Food

On a long trip, I do a lot of eating out of the cooler- lots of sandwiches for lunch, apples, and carrot sticks.  I also like to take the opportunity to try some new places and the places we’ve gone for dinner have all been great.  Night #1 in Tuscon was  at the 4 Seasons- a very local seeming place serving Thai, Chinese and American food.  Night #2 in Tuscon was The Wild Garlic Grill – amazing food by a French-trained Tuscon Native and definitely some place I’d put on my list to go back.  Night #1 in San Diego was burgers at a place called Neighborhood- a relaxed atmosphere featuring waiters wearing hoodies with ‘Hood’ written on the back, proudly proclaiming ‘No Red Bull, No ketchup, No Hostess’ (and some other Nos that I forgot) on the sign outside, and serving up great burgers and perfectly cooked fries.  There are some great things about living in a small town, but getting to try different spots to eat is not one of them, so it’s been great to try these different (and tasty) places.

That’s it for this week since I’m off to see San Diego this morning, but I wanted to take the time to get this out before the memories of some of these places start to fade.

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