Mesa Verde day 2

Today was Grandma Naomi's birthday, so we started things off with a birthday banner and some presents.

Our plan was to spend the morning exploring the Mesa Top Loop and the afternoon along the Cliff Palace Loop. We started with a fairly quick stop at the Spruce Tree Terrace. The Spruce Tree House was closed (which the website had said was the case) but the little museum there was also closed, which was a bummer. We then discovered that the Mesa Top Loop was closed (which the website did not indicate), and that was was rather disappointing. We headed instead straight to the Cliff Palace loop and stopped at every single lookout point there was. We did a short little hike which gave us a view of the Balcony House, which we weren't able to get tour tickets for. 

We had plenty of time for a leisurely picnic lunch, then at 2:30 we had a tour of the Cliff Palace. This tour was pretty short and we didn't get to go in the ruins at all, just sort of walk past them. The little climb down and back up was kind of unique though, so that was fun. 

 

We had seen all there was to see in this loop, so we headed back toward camp, planning to stop at the sites along the road. There were some black clouds rolling in as we arrived at Cedar Tree Tower and the farming terrace trail. Kip and Naomi had gotten soaked in the afternoon rain yesterday, so they (along with the boys who were just being bums) opted to stay in the cars while Matthew, Mercy and I did the short, half mile nature walk. We did get a bit wet, but all three of us decided this little trail was our favorite of the entire park and we were glad we did it.

The rain didn't last long and had moved on by the time we reached the Far View sites, which were ruins of the dwellings not built in the cliffs where most of the native people of the time lived. 

It was already pretty chilly when we got back to camp, so we ate birthday cake and enjoyed our dehydrated meals by the tiny fire that Grandpa used to cook his and Grandma's soup, then we all curled up in the tent again for another movie on the tablet.