Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado to Arches National Park, Utah

The way to go at Mesa Verde National Park is to do the tours. To see the major sites, like the ones you see in magazines, you can only see by ranger lead tours. You have to get there early in order to get tickets. They are pretty cheap, just $5 a person per tour.

This tour was not for the weak of heart. It was very strenuous. There were quite a bit of stairs, a 32 ft. tall ladder you had to climb and a 12 ft. Long tunnel you had to crawl through. And if you ask John, the tunnel was pretty f'in tight.

32-foot tall wooden ladder

Another view of the ladder.

It was a long way down. The ranger gave us a tip for those afraid of heights. Make sure to look at your hands, don't look up or down. This tip proved to be very helpful for me.

The views were wonderful from the ruins.

Since the ruins are protected from the elements, you can see this how this "balcony" was made. The wood and even the juniper bark that was used is still visible.

You can still see the smoke stains on the ceiling.

You can see the outline from a room that was torn down at some point.

One of many PB&J picnics!

Forgot to snap a picture, but this is Cliff Palace. It had a good many steps to get out but it was much less strenuous.


This was the top! You climbed down lots of steps from there to Cliff Palace.

Our tour guide. She actually was our tour guide for both of the tours we did. She did an awesome job!

On our way to Arches National Park, Utah

We had beautiful skies the entire trip!

Welcome to Utah.

 We came upon this Arch on our way to Arches National Park. We decided to stop and take some pictures. We ended up climbing to the top, after we researched that we wouldn't be breaking any laws.

Wilson's Arch

John at the top of Wilson's Arch.

 Me at the top of Wilson's Arch

Missed taking a picture of the sign into Arches National Park, so the map will have to do. We made it to Arches a little later than we had planned, and turns out this summer they were closing the park at 7 p.m. to work on the roads, so our time was limited in the park. We did make it to a more famous attraction, Balanced Rock.

Balanced Rock