Mesa Verde National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

We decided our goal right after Covid was to visit the national parks NOT on everyone’s radar. The parks in southern Colorado are less traveled than Rocky Mountain National Park (which we have seen before) but in my opinion not any less beautiful!

We made a reservation to tour the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde on Monday, August 5th. It was a hot day so we armed ourselves with water, hats, sunscreen and sunglasses. Good shoes were a must as well as we would need to climb several ladders. Our guide was a Native American and he told us the history of the communities the cliff dwellers lived in.

For over 700 years the Pueblo people and other tribes thrived in these dwellings. Amazing to think how they built them.

We were only thinking about the cliff dwellings and didn’t realize there were some pretty spectacular views as well!

Lots of signs of previous forest fires. Some parts were eery with all the dead black trees.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is doing some construction so we learned that RV’s would not be allowed in the visitor lot as of August 5th so we ventured there on Saturday, August 3rd to check things out as our campground was only 45 minutes away. We got into the visitor lot and decided to return for the overlooks on the way to the family reunion.

We returned on August 8th to see some of the overlooks of the Gunnison! Amazing! It was quite hot and some required a bit of walking so we limited ourselves. Tom still managed to pull his flag out for a photo op!

What a spectacular piece of our country! More sights in store for us as we ventured to another mountain range where the family reunion would take place!