national parks – Adventures in Colorado, 2023 edition

The last day of hiking

May 27, 2023May 27, 2023 Karen DLeave a comment

Our initial intention was to explore Crested Butte or Telluride, but we are weary of riding in the car, so we decide to check out the Colorado National Monument, which is not a monument in the sense of a structure, but acres and acres of sandstone buttes and mesas, lava rock and gneiss. We are out of the house by 8:15 with sandwiches packed and are excited to drive a different direction and see different scenery.

We are hiking the No Throughfare Trail, which is sandy rather than dirt and roots. Geologic formations surround us, yet we are hiking alongside beautiful wildflowers, cacti and aromatic shrubs (stay tuned for an episode of Flora of Colorado).

I’m hiking slowly scanning the hills for BigHorn sheep, but the most I see is humans.

About a tenth of a mile before the waterfall we are hiking to, the big black rain cloud I’ve been eyeing ahead of us lets out a large clap of thunder and it starts spitting rain. The crew is ahead of me on the trail but I have to stop and stow my camera out of the elements, get my rain coat and hat out. By the time I maneuver everything into place and make it to the waterfall, they are done taking pictures there and we turn around and start hightailing it it back.

I’ve had a bad hiking experience with thunder and lightning before, so I am a bit tense about being out in the thunderstorm. So, when we get a super loud clap of thunder, I scream like a little girl. I don’t feel bad because Kim is letting a choice four-letter word fly.

Soon the rain turns to hail. Good Gravy it can only get worse if we get stuck in a flash flood! But we don’t, that’s just my mental drama, the rain and hail stop in about ten minutes and my heart rate goes back to normal.

We stop for a picnic lunch and grab some corny group photos, then head to Peach Street Distillery in Palisade for a much deserved adult beverage. Then back to Olathe for our last night in our superb accommodations. We reminisce about family road trips of our youth. The gas station bathrooms where you had to get the key inside and it was on a long piece of wood, the disgusting cloth towel roll to dry your hands and the dads who wouldn’t stop for a bathroom break until the car needed gas!

It’s our last night in Olathe and we have truly been blessed with great weather, great friendships, and more fun than humans should be allowed to have. Tomorrow, we drive to Boulder.

Kim, Vicki and Caroline all earned trail names today. Kim: “Pockets” because she is always wearing pants/shorts/tights with pockets, and her phone always pocket dials or starts the Garage Band app when it’s in her pocket. Vicki: “The Gneissest” because she truly is the nicest. She goes with the flow, doesn’t bust our chops like the rest of us do to each other, and is truly the nicest person. Caroline: “Cupcake” because she is the best hostess. She has provided home made meals for our stay, helped with the itinerary, chauffeured us around…..we are in such a better state than if we’d been left to our own organizing.

Today brought to you by the word “WOW!”

May 26, 2023May 26, 2023 Karen DLeave a comment

Today we were up and out by 5 am for our 3 hour and 40 minute drive to Mesa Verde National Park. Lunch and snacks were packed the night before so all we had to do was wake up, grab our packs (and coffee) and go.

Leaving so early we were almost the only car on the road. As the sky lightened with sunrise, we were able to take in more of the sights along the way. We drove by the snow covered peaks of the San Juan mountains, saw several herds of elk grazing in fields, cross country ski tracks in the snow along the roadside and even a mostly frozen lake.

About an hour and a half into the trip, the terrain completely changed. No longer were there jagged snowy peaks. Instead. tree covered mountains where the dark green of the ponderosa pines contrasted with the white bark of the aspens that are just starting to show their leaves.

With one hour left to go, we roll through the town of Delores, population 901. On the other side of town, we find the terrain change again, opening up into a wide valley, with Mesa Verde National Park rising up straight ahead of us.

We had booked a 9 am ranger-led tour of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park. We met our tour guide and the rest of the tour group at the overlook to Cliff Palace and began the tour with a walk down steep carved stone steps. The tour group gathered at one end of the dwelling and listened as our ranger, Maggie, told us about the history of the dwellings and the lives of the inhabitants. The Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the dwellings began building around 1190, but abandoned the sites around 1300, probably due to resource constraints brought on by several megadroughts. More stone steps, narrow sandstone passes, and multiple wooden ladders brought us to the end of our tour.

After Cliff Palace, we got out on the trails. Our first hike, Soda Canyon Trail, gave us the opportunity to view across the canyon another well-known dwelling, Balcony House. The mesas and canyons were so vast it was hard to take everything in and of course, pictures just don’t do it justice. We all kept saying, “Wow.” We had no other way to describe the beauty. After Soda Canyon, we stopped for a picnic lunch, and then tackled Petroglyph Point TrailL, a 2.4 mile trail along stone steps, narrow ridges and abandoned dwellings. The highlight was a large petroglyph panel with over 30 figures of hands, spirals and animal figures.

Thankfully the hike back to the start was on top of the mesa, and we were glad to be done with stone steps! We were all pretty drained from the combination of an early start, long drive, hours out in the sun, and time on our feet, so we said goodbye to Mesa Verde and headed back to our home for the week.

And….two of us now have trail names. Carol earned the trail name Fact Finder, for her ability to find the answer to all our oddball road trip questions.

Tomorrow: Black Canyon of the Gunnison!