Day 4 Mesa Verde

We made it to Mesa Verde and it was time to explore. First change of plans. Decided to skip the very very crowded and 2 hour long Long House tour, and at the Ranger guides up front decided to go with Split House and the Long House Overlook walks. Both were amazing but first the tour through Badger Community to Long House Overlook. It is really sad to see all the trees burned by fires. So much gone. But it was 100's of years worth of growth that eventually just caught.

Really amazes me how much the Pueblo people built these homes. And then over generations they would reuse and build over the original and then again. Really cool.

All of this exploring was on Wetherill Mesa which was named after the brothers who explored the mesas and documented much of their finds.

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The team posing after our journey to Long House Overlook. A funny side note I sneezed in the middle of the hike and said excuse me to the wilderness around me.

Step House is one of the only cliff dwellings you can go in without a Ranger tour. While there is a usually a ranger on duty you don't need to buy a ticket to go check it out. Well worth the trip.

After Step House  I took a break, may have uploaded some blogs, had some snacks and then headed to Cliff Palace Loop.

This is where things went wrong. oh so wrong. Spruce House you can see and in face there are pictures of my kiddos in front of it. One of my favorites. Well also a problem was that I had a twilight tour of Cliff Palace at 645. It was 4. Plenty of time for me to do something stupid. And so I did. I started to go down into the Canyon. And Spruce Canyon hike... well I mean i just wanted to see a little and before i knew it I was moving along a 2 plus mile trail and had only one way to go because going back was the same as going forward distance wise.  And I speed hiked that puppy knowing i had to get back as soon as possible. I may also have gotten lost getting back to the car but that is another story. But hey I made it. And did you know they can mail stuff from the top of Mesa Verde?

I survived the hike and quickly headed over to Cliff Palace.