Aztec Ruins National Monument

We visited Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico.

Pueblo people describe this site as part of their migration journey. Today you can follow their ancient passageways to a distant time. Explore a 900-year old ancestral Pueblo Great House of over 400 masonry rooms. Look up and see original timbers holding up the roof. Search for the fingerprints of ancient workers in the mortar. Listen for an echo of ritual drums in the reconstructed Great Kiva.

(Quoting from the NPS website.)

Sign

A very nice picnic area:

Picnic area

Where we enjoyed a picnic lunch:

Picnic

The visitor center:

Visitor center

Flowering Prickly Pear cactus:

Flowering Prickly Pear cactus

Exploring the ruins, with the help of an audio guide:

Ruins

A reconstructed great kiva:

Reconstructed kiva

The reconstructed kiva in the background, and ruins of a smaller one in the foreground:

Ruins

Unlike many sites, one can go into this:

Ruins

Demonstrating how low the doorways are:

Jenn & David

Ruins

Into fairly intact rooms:

Ruins

Original ceilings:

Ruins

On guard:

On guard

Ruins

Chatting with a volunteer:

Volunteer

Ruins

An impressive place, fascinating to explore.

Mesa Verde National Park Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House

One last time into Mesa Verde National Park:

Mesa Verde National Park

Curvy road

We visited the Cliff Palace overlook again:

Cliff Palace

Then went to the Spruce Tree House overlook:

Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between about 1211 and 1278 CE by the ancestors of the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. The dwelling contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (kee-vahs), or ceremonial chambers, built into a natural alcove measuring 216 feet (66 meters) at greatest width and 89 feet (27 meters) at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people.

(Quote from that NPS page.)

Spruce Tree House

Food: Burger Boy Drive In

A bit of a novelty, we visited Burger Boy Drive In, located in Cortez, Colorado. There are drive-in chains like Sonic, but this place had a certain 50’s charm, complete with a window-mounted tray, even though the staff weren’t on roller-skates.

Burger Boy Drive In

Window tray with burgers and tots:

Window tray

We had shakes, tots, and burgers:

Burger and receipt

A rather unremarkable burger:

Burger

But hey, it was an experience.

Mesa Verde National Park lookout, Far View, tower, palace

We visited Mesa Verde National Park again. This time we saw several of the major highlights of the park.

The mesa on entering the park:

Mesa

The tunnel again, this time in sunshine:

Tunnel

We stopped at Park Point, the highest point in the park; read the info sign for details:

Park Point

Views:

View

Info signs:

Info sign

Fire lookout:

Fire lookout

More views:

View

Info sign:

Info sign

Then we proceeded to the Far View area, and the gift store there:

Gift store

We got some pretty basic food from the small food court there:

Food

Then we proceeded to the Far View Community sites, hiking between some fascinating Puebloan ruins:

Far View Community sites

Further into the park, Square Tower House is an impressive cliff dwelling:

Square Tower House

Fire Temple:

Sun Temple

And the main feature of Mesa Verde, the largest cliff dwelling in North America, Cliff Palace:

Cliff Palace

Finally, the nearby Sun Temple:

Sun Temple

Hovenweep National Monument

Hovenweep National Monument has multiple units in Utah and Colorado. We visited the main one, site of Hovenweep Castle and several other ruins:

Hovenweep National Monument sign

A sign with a map of the various units:

Map sign

We hiked along a canyon-edge path, with a view of several structures on both sides of the canyon:

Structure

Structures

Path

Structures

Structure

Selfie

Structures

Structure

Structures

Hovenweep Castle:

Hovenweep Castle

Tower

Structure

Selfie

Four Corners Monument

We visited the Navajo Nation Four Corners Monument; the only place in the US where four states meet:

Four Corners Monument sign

Four Corners Monument

Plaque

A line to stand on the four corners:

Line

Navajo merchant stalls:

Stalls

Us standing in the center of the Four Corners monument:

Four Corners Monument

The marker by our feet:

Four Corners Monument

State and Navajo flags:

Four Corners Monument

Colorado:

Colorado

New Mexico:

New Mexico

Arizona:

Arizona

Utah:

Utah

Flags:

Flags

Outside the monument were some frybread food carts:

Frybread cart

We had frybread tacos:

Frybread

So we parked in Arizona, bought our lunch in Colorado, and ate it in New Mexico. Fun!

The line was longer as we departed:

Line

Mesa Verde National Park quick visit

We visited Mesa Verde National Park several times while staying basically across the road.

The first time was a quick scouting trip on the afternoon of our arrival at the Ancient Cedars RV park.

The entrance sign:

Entrance sign

Mesa

It started raining, resulting in a fuzzy picture of the tunnel:

Tunnel and rain

Tunnel

We stopped at the Far View Lounge for dinner; the view wasn’t all that far, due to a dust storm:

Far View Lounge

Pretty basic food:

Food

On the way back down the hill, it started to snow!

Snow

Ancient Cedars Mesa Verde RV Park

We stayed at Ancient Cedars Mesa Verde RV Park in Mancos, Colorado. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Dates:

Check in: 2022-05-29
Check out: 2022-06-05
7 nights

Weather:

Mosty sunny, some clouds, a little drizzle on a couple of days
High temps ranging between 61-80°F, lows around 33-46°F
Some afternoon wind, not as bad as previous places

Noise:

Negligible road noise, no train noise
Some neighbor noise, cleared out during the week

Site:

#607, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
Very large site: about 90 feet long by about 45 feet wide
Full hookups:

50 amp power somewhat conveniently located
Low water pressure, 35 PSI, somewhat conveniently located (boosted with coach water tank and pump)
Bad sewer connection (too low in surrounding concrete), not very conveniently located (2 10 foot hoses used)

Picnic table; fire pit

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 14 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
T-Mobile: 0.3 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
AT&T: 1.5 Mbps down, 0.1 Mbps up, 150 ms ping
Verizon: 0.3 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 200 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: limited; not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool, closed for season; hot tub
Mini golf; playground; dog park; etc
Package delivery to site about half of the time, pick up in office the other half

Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:

As close to Mesa Verde as you can be!

We totally lucked out and got the most massive site in the park, complete with a full view of Mesa Verde. It was absolutely wonderful in that regard. The other sites near us were not so spacious. Water pressure was pretty low (about 35 psi) so we just filled up our tank and ran off of that. They also need to trim some of the trees the park is named for, as it was a little hard to navigate some of the roads with our 40′ motorhome. The main draw is to visit Mesa Verde National Park. The visitor center and entrance station were very close, allowing us to make nearly daily trips to check out the park at different times of day. There are other national monuments within easy driving distance as well. We camped at Ancient Cedars Mesa Verde RV Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

Map