Mesa Verde National Park

Two NATIONAL PARKS in one week?  YEP!  We were thrilled to be able to see another national park on our Colorado trip.  The last time I went to Mesa Verde I was in the 10th grade.  And I looked back at pictures of myself there to compare to these and I only had one of myself standing on one of the pueblo ladders and you couldn't tell if I was in a cliff dwelling or just standing in my front yard.  My picture taking has come a long way!  I hope.

Once again we got to use Bennett's 4th grade National Park pass.  What a treat!  We pulled right to the visitor center and picked up the Junior Ranger booklets.  This is the coolest program!  Only Henry and SK wanted to do it.  Bennett is NOT trying to do "work" while on summer vacay..."I just want to have my summer" he says.  Please.

Since Mesa Verde is GIGANTIC, we had plenty of time for them to finish their booklets before we got to the next visitor center within the park.  

I am not quite sure how this statue was intended, but I just don't think this type of posing was it.

We stopped at this picnic area for a quick photo opp and looked around a bit.

My 3 babies at Mesa Verde

Henry was LOVING it.

Sister brought hers to do, too!

 Our next stop before seeing all the ruins was a little hike where we couldn't really see anything due to the ruin being closed.  So, we headed to the ranger station to turn in our Junior Ranger booklets and to pick up a map so we could figure out where to go!

This park ranger was so cool!  He looked all through their booklets to make sure each activity was complete.

He grabbed his hat and swore them in as Junior Rangers.

They were so darn proud!  They wore their badges with pride!  Sister chose the wooden badge and Henry chose the golden one.

 Off to see the ruins!  We were going to take a tour, but the next one available when we arrived at 10am was 1pm.  We didn't think the kids would last until then and we were RIGHT!  We took our own tour getting out at each scenic stop throughout the park.  Great way to do it in my opinion.

The cliff dwellings are behind us! :)

Amazing.  We had so many questions like: How did they get down in there from that high cliff?  

Family and the cliff dwellings

How did the dwellers in this dwelling meet the friends alllllll the way across the valley from this dwelling?

Were these people tiny?

So much craftsmanship!

Henry was really impressed with the ancient ruins.

You can see a huge dwelling right in the middle.

Amazing  Some of these dwellings were found in 1950 by a rancher!

Living our best life at Mesa Verde!

Our plan after Mesa Verde was to head to 4 corners monument!  Where you could stand in 4 states at once!  But, after 2 hours in the car, 3 hours of sightseeing, and another hour to get there...we went on back to Purgatory for some rest time.  I am sad we didn't make it, but that'll just give us another reason to go back!

Swimming and James Ranch

There's something so cool about swimming at the base of a mountain. I mean it is just surreal!  And the other plus of basically having the whole mountain resort to ourselves was just unheard of.  What dreams are made of!

After swimming, we got dressed and headed to Jame Ranch right down the street from Purgatory.  It is the coolest place!  Jill showed us this cool Burger and Band night that they do each Thursday and we thought we were in danger of having to miss it due to the fire, but they opened up!  Your ticket in was $20 and it included the band and your burger of choice.  I got the veggie burger which was a squash steak with the cheese they make at the ranch.  All of the food comes from the ranch even down to the meat, bread, cheese, and veggies.  What a cool place.

The kids will say that their favorite was the ice cream made from their milk and cream.  The mint chocolate chip (yuck-my least favorite) was BOMB!  It was made with fresh mint and SO FRESH.  I can't say enough about this place!

Trying to get a Christmas card pic!

Trying so hard

Why?

Really!  I just want 1 pic

Maybe?

This place was a dream. At one point we all walked around on the soft grass barefooted

We brought blankets and just had picnics on the ground. Dream.

This girl is always feeling the music!  

Our wilderness kids loved the goats: Cookie and Cream! And the tiny 17 year old daschund

Henry was LOVING these goats.  The owner even asked him if he wanted to feed them their milk. 

Of course he wanted to, but it took 40 minutes to heat up the milk and he waited so patiently!

That ice cream!

Henry got Strawberry Rhubarb and Bennett got Mint

Feeding these goats was the highlight for the kids

This was a treat to see on their Instagram!  This is their daughter, Sasha!  She told me that she was training to be a babysitter!  She was the sweetest!