2For66

September 5, 2017

Before I write about Mesa Verde I want to go back and mention a delicious lunch we had the day before in Moab, Utah. We’ve been through Moab a few times, most recently two years ago when we visited Arches National Park and Canyonlands. On this trip we stopped at the Moab Diner and had some green chili for lunch. It was some of the best green chili I’ve had. If you find yourself in Moab, hit up the Moab Diner and have a bowl of green chili.

And now on with our travels. After a quick breakfast of Carla’s homemade granola we hit the road for the 175 mile drive south through eastern Utah into south western Colorado, past Cortez and into Mesa Verde National Park. The park entrance is near highway 160, but we had another 30 minute to an hour drive up a mountain and into trails and views. It was too early to check into our accommodations at Far View Lodge so we continued driving down the road to a mile long loop hiking trail where we were treated to some beautiful vistas of the mesas.

I had to work on the photos to “dehaze” them. We encountered a lot of smoke from wildfires all the way down Utah and Colorad.

Carla was in her happy place.

We learned later these aren’t mesas -even though they are flat – but I forget the official name. Sorry. We found another viewpoint showing a deep canyon that was breathtaking.

At this point it was hard to believe people lived here over a thousand years ago. But, if you look closely… Look just under the top of the ridge on the right side of photo above. Carla pointed it out to me.

I was glad I had my 24-240 zoom lens so I could get closer and closer to what we saw. Click on the photo below to get a bigger version.

The sun was heading to the west so we got back in the car and drove the half hour back to our lodging at Far View Lodge where we had a couple of drinks and some fish tacos.

We had a tour scheduled for the next day where we could learn more about the people who lived here before Columbus “discovered” America. Stay tuned.