Back when I was planning this trip, Michael wasn't really involved in the plans. He knows how much I love to get all the details worked out and I know there are certain things he wanted to see and do, but it's mainly left up to me. After being in Arches National Park (prior to the evening debacle with Zeke) Michael decided to look on Google Maps and see how close we were to something he's always wanted to visit.
After looking into it he figured we could fit it in on our way to our next destination. He was so sweet when asking me if I'd be up for changing our plans a bit. I could tell he was worried about hurting my feelings and thinking I didn't plan good enough, but in all honesty the midway point for us stopping the next day wasn't all that exciting so I was fine with moving things around.
We packed up the next morning and got on the road headed for our next stop!
Mesa Verde National Park!
I had never even heard of the this particular NP before, but after Michael told me about it I thought it would be too cool to miss out on! Thankfully there was a guy talking a picture of the sign right when we got there and he was nice enough to get a shot of our whole family!
Mesa Verde means Green Table and that's exact what it is. It's this huge elevated landmass that's just lush and green in southeastern Colorado.
That was another reason I was totally fine with adding this stop in. I hadn't planned on us going into Colorado so it was fun to add another state to our list of states we were in for this trip. Plus the kids had never ever been to Colorado either.
This park is really stretched out in regards to points of interest. It was quite different in that way in comparison to Arches. The drive was fun though. There were so many twists and turns. Thankfully the kids don't typically get car sick.
It was so crazy that Michael wanted me to take a Hyperlapse video of part of the drive. It makes me dizzy watching it, but it's fun too!
The views from up here were crazy! You could see for miles and miles!
We got out at almost every viewpoint to see around us. Most them were just a short walk from the van to the viewing area.
For this trip we gave each of the kids $50 to use however they wanted. When we were in the Visitor Center at Arches, Jackson just had to have this mountain lion. He named him Boulder!
One thing that was frustrating about this park was the lack of signs. Coming from Utah that just rocked it with signs everywhere, this park was for sure in need of some help. It got to the point where we didn't even know which way to go so we stopped at a gift shop and had to ask. They definitely need to work on that....or maybe that's there plan so you'll have to stop and buy something. :)
We finally made it to the southwest portion of the park and were trying to figure out what to do. We wanted to go look at this certain section, but were told you had to have reservations which good luck getting a signal out there, but it wouldn't have even mattered because you have to book it weeks in advance. So that was a no go. Thankfully they had a self-guided tour of the Step House.
Starting out along the trail to take us down to see the Step House!
You definitely have to feel comfortable with your kids being able to listen as there are no guardrails.
Gorgeous views!
Again we had perfect weather....in fact it was even a little chilly which was much better than scorching hot!
This was a fun walking trail!
Jackson always likes to go in the little nooks and crannies!
At least there was a handrail for the steps!
You can tell where there were homes built into the cliffs by finding the black streaks...which I assume was caused by the fires they would need for heat or cooking.
Once we hiked down to this area we were able to see things up close and personal. This is a pit house without its roof.
This is a pit house had it's roof restored so you could visualize what it looked like.
We've even got to climb up a ladder to get a better view of things.
This is known as a Kiva....it's a round chamber that was used for religious/social/utilitarian purposes.
It's crazy how well this was preserved!
Yay for a picture of our whole family!
It was a fun adventure getting to see this!
After this we headed back to the van to drive to the next viewpoint. Unfortunately, the road that takes you over to the place Michael really wanted to go was actually closed for construction. It's called the Cliff Palace Loop. In actuality I think this ended up being a good thing since you can't go down to visit it unless you have tickets and I'm sure those would be sold out weeks or months in advance. So since that wasn't an option we drove over to the Mesa Top Loop road that gave us a great view of the Cliff Palace from across the Cliff Canyon.
This is the Mac Daddy of the cliff houses. You can see why it's called The Cliff Palace. It's HUGE!!! It really would have been fun to see it up close, but at least we did get to see it!
The only other unfortunate thing about Mesa Verde National Park is there is only one way in and one way out. We needed to go southwest towards Arizona, but because of there only being one entrance we had to head back to that which means we had to head in a northeastern direction. Oh well....it all worked out and we were able to stop at one more fun place before heading to our destination for the night!
4 Corners!!!
That means we got to add New Mexico to our list of states we visited for this trip. I had never been to New Mexico so this was super fun!
I have always wanted to go here and it was so much more than I thought it would be. I was honestly just thinking it would be a sidewalk with an X on it. I was not thinking it'd be as nice as this. It did cost us $6 per person to get on the land. It is part of the Navajo Nation Parks & Rec. There was a line when we got there to get your picture taken, but we were only 4 families back from the front. They did have signs saying you can only take 3 pictures. I'm sure some people try to take way too many so we just took a couple and moved on. The booths you see in the back are set up in each state. You can walk around and buy things from the vendors. Ella bought a fun monolith type necklace and Jack bought a sling shot. We actually walked around the whole area 2 times going from state, to state, to state, to state. :)
Jack wanted to try out his sling shot in the parking lot and on the second shot it actually broke! Poor kid....Michael took him back to the vendor and they thankfully let him have another one at no cost.
Back on the road!
There are just so many fun rock formations to see!
The sun was shining in and bugging Ella so she got creative and used her blanket to block it!
The drive was quite long since we added the two other adventures, but we finally made it to...
The Grand Canyon!
We entered the park from the East and it was a long drive in until we actually came to the canyon. This was our first opportunity to see it.
The sun was getting lower on the horizon so the views were fun with all the shadowing.
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I honestly never thought I would get to see the Grand Canyon in real life. I don't know why, but I just did.
So gorgeous....we only got this little glimpse since it was getting late and we still needed to drive a ways to our hotel and eat dinner. We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge inside the Grand Canyon National Park so we knew we'd get to see a lot more of it the next day.
On our way to the Lodge we saw a bunch of cars pulled over so we stopped to see what was going on. We got a great view of some elk.
There was this one bull elk and two cows and he was wanting them pretty bad. But they weren't having it! :) In this picture you can see that he's calling for them.
When he finally realized that they ladies weren't having it he decided he'd cross the road right behind our van. I was probably 8 - 10 ft away from him. It was crazy and he was HUGE! I was almost frozen in place, but he never he paid attention to me at all!
After that fun encounter it was really time to get to the lodge. I went and checked in and Michael went to stand in the line for dinner. The only place open was the bar and you had to stand in line to place your order. The line was outside the door. Michael took the kids over to the cafeteria seating area so him and the kids could rest and I waited in line to place our order. Thankfully they did bring our order to the table for us, but the food was pretty subpar. In fact I got the kids a pizza to share and it was honestly the most disgusting pizza I've ever tasted. I felt so bad for them.
After that we drove over to our building. The Yavapai Lodge isn't one lodge like you'd think it's just a bunch of separate buildings...kind of looks like apartment buildings really. Yavapai Lodge is the only place to stay in the Grand Canyon National Park that has family rooms. Our room had two queen beds and then a bunkbed as well. It was pretty crowded, but in all honestly we were barely there at all. It was just a place to rest so we could head out the next day for more adventures!
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