Mesa Verde.............

Happy Anniversary to us! We have been on the road for one year. To mark this milestone and celebrate, we had dinner at one of the few restaurants in town, Twin Rocks Cafe, and enjoyed a great dinner. So hard to believe a year has gone by already. It was our "year of learning" in this new alternative lifestyle, and learn we did! This year has been filled with incredible memories. We've seen so many amazingly beautiful sights and have met wonderful people all along our journey. How lucky are we to be able to live our dream together? "Live each day" was already our mantra, but it is now more than ever.

Admittedly, full-timing is not for everyone....but it works for us and has been even better than we imagined it would be. I'm still working on "being retired" vs. "being on vacation". I do have trouble with that. Don't get me wrong....I have no problem cleaning, doing laundry, food-shopping and making all of our meals....all that kind of stuff....but I still tend to go "nuts" every time we change our backyard. The list of places to visit and experience is growing instead of getting smaller. SShhh! Don't tell Tom:)

Twin Rocks 

Twin Rocks Cafe

Celebrating 1 year on the road (Check out the pic above our table)!

yummy!

There is so much to see and do in the Four Corners area of the country. Mesa Verde, in Cortez, Colorado, is not too far away so we went on an excursion there. Mesa Verde National Park contains over 600 cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans...and many are very well preserved. The area is beautiful as well! For more information, click here.

Truth be told, we also used that as an excuse to go to Walmart-the closest one to us at an hour and a half away. We wanted to stock up for the next few weeks as we will continue to be in remote areas. So, before our Walmart and Walgreens excursion, we thoroughly enjoyed Mesa Verde. We were there 20 years ago, and seems as if things have tightened up. Some of the ruins that were along the scenic drive that were accessible have now been enclosed in a garage type dwellings to protect them from the elements, and now you can no longer climb among those ruins. The Spruce Tree House is the most well-preserved and most popular ruin as it can be accessed the easiest. Its very impressive!

Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde

this is the only ruin you can hike to without a ranger-led tour

heading down

down into the canyon wall

almost there

bright and pretty blooms

the start of the Spruce Tree ruins

so many dwellings

very well preserved 

a rope keeps visitors at bay

so our children's children can enjoy the ruins too

Hey Susie....we have to walk back up there!

a kiva

this is fascinating

nice that its not too crowded here

happy to be able to revisit Mesa Verde...its impressive 

We had planned to hike the Petroglyph Trail, an "easy" 2.4 mile loop through scenic wildlife habitat to a petroglyph wall. The trail is "easy" if you aren't afraid of heights! We went for a while, but when things weren't improving, we decided to turn around. I'm such a ball and chain-ugh!

starting on the "easy" Petroglyph Trail

bluebird of happiness

We drove on through the scenic loop and went on the Soda Point Trail, which was a 1.2 mile round trip that truly was easy. The views of the Balcony House were terrific! Because of the extra time we had by not doing the Petroglyph Trail, we explored another loop in the park that we had not seen before. Nice ! What a treat!

large area burned in a forest fire

we visited most of the overlooks on the scenic road through the park

there are ruins everywhere

binoculars come in handy

how did they get there?

Rocky Mountains in the background

lots of ruins-most not accessible to the public

the views of the canyon are impressive too, by the way!

we took a few little hikes to various overlooks

even I couldn't get lost

nice to walk amongst trees again

really nice

the Balcony House and Cliff House were both closed for the season...this is a view from across the canyon

hi lizzy

check out the ladder....that would stop me right there...though this is a popular tour

this overlook really hung over the canyon

and gave us an uneasy feeling

but the views were awesome

smile for the camera (and then get back on terra firma)!

more overlooks-more great views

the ruins are fantastic

Cliff Palace

Fire Temple

wow...so many ruins...

Sun Temple

great views

another view of Cliff Palace

Cliff Palace behind us

Mesa Verde is on top of the Mesa...about 7000 -8572 feet up! The air is thin up there....and the drive up and down has beautiful views. We stopped at one last viewpoint before heading out to do the ordinary task of picking up supplies at Walmart. Just look at that scenery!

heading down the Mesa top  (Mesa Verde is at about 7000 feet elevation)