October 13th and 22nd, 2022
We were staying in Bloomfield, New Mexico, and we'd already found lots to do there. But we had a couple sites on our list, national parks that couldn't be missed, and we got to both of them. Monica had seen them once before on a trip with her dad, but they were new to Margot.
The Aztec Ruins were right down the road from where we were staying, so that was an easy stop. We actually went to see them while the motor home was in the shop nearby to get a dead air conditioner motor replaced. It's really a special national park, with a nice visitor center and friendly people. But the best part of the park was through the visitor center on the other side.
You can walk a path to go around a collection of Ancestral Puebloan structures, many of them in fantastic shape. The southwest has a lot of these, but there is a special feature here that was built many years ago. These days, national parks are left as they are with very little repairs to historical structures. But, back in the day, they would rebuild things. At Aztec Ruins, they had reconstructed a Great Kiva. This isn't something we'd do now, but it was really cool to see what the roof and walls would have looked like.
It's a really nice national monument and a great way to spend some time just thinking about how things were such a long time ago. We really enjoyed our trip there. We also liked the shop where we took the motor home, so that was good. Thanks, Pop's Truck and RV Center!
One of the longer trips we'd take was all the way back to Colorado to see Mesa Verde. We'd both been to the park, and Monica hiked every trail in it with her dad on that visit. But it's such an amazing place, and we were happy to get back to see it. We took Lacey to a doggy daycare in Durango for this one.
After a long visit to the visitor center, we headed out to the end of Chapin Mesa. We'd only have time to do one of the two mesas, so we picked the main, more developed area. Part of it was closed for road maintenance, but we were able to get to the Spruce Tree House (the museum was also closed, unfortunately). We looked at it from across the canyon but elected not to do the long decent down to the bottom (followed by a steep climb back up).
We had tickets to do the Cliff House tour, so we went over to the meeting place. Then, we found out it was the last tour of the season. We planned that right! The weather was still perfect, and we climbed down to the side of the wall where the Cliff House was. The tours were informative. Both of us remembered getting to see more of it in previous years, but it was still a great tour.
After the tour, a family was trying to go in via the exit -- a feat that would be impossible with other people coming up. They were speaking Spanish, and Monica called "No Salida!" Monica doesn't speak Spanish, but she remembered seeing that word on exit doors. It worked! It was definitely a highlight of her day.
The two national parks are treasures, and we were so lucky to have seen them. This is such a special place.
