Week 2 in Colorado - Ridgway State Park and Mesa Verde NP

Greetings!

After a wonderful week in Colorado Springs, our next destination in the Rocky Mountain state was Ridgway, Colorado where we stayed in the Pa-Co-Chu-Puk State Park.  This is a campground we stayed in last September and we loved it so much, we decided to go back.  Last year, we took advantage of a last-minute cancellation and only stayed two nights.  This year we stayed four and it was glorious!  

The drive from Colorado Springs to Ridgway was across Colorado and it was so beautiful.

Beautiful mountains, a river, and lots of wildflowers

We stopped at a scenic overlook at Dillon Pinnacles - stunning!

Looking out the door from inside the Airstream

The Blue Mesa dam

We arrived in the afternoon and although we had clouds and rain for most of our drive, the sun came out after we settled in.  We were happy to be back!

Looking at the weather forecast, there was a lot of rain expected during our stay, so we decided to go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park our first day.  Although we had some light rain, it was a great day and an absolutely stunning park.  It features some of the steepest cliffs, oldest exposed rock, and craggiest spires in North America and is referred to as a dramatic, vertical wilderness.  It was about 35-minutes from our campground.  

As soon as you enter the park, you can see the dramatic steep canyon walls below the mesas

First stop - the Visitor Center situated next to a beautiful overlook

We embarked on two hikes - the first was the Oak Flat Loop Trail, near the Visitor Center

There was a bad wildfire in the summer of 2025, but thankfully, you can see all of the regrowth starting.

On many spots of this hike, you looked down at the Gunnison River - so pretty

Our second hike was recommended by a Park Ranger at the Visitor Center - the Warner Point Trail - which was located at the very end of the scenic drive.  It was so beautiful.

It rained on us a bit at the beginning, but gradually stopped as we got to the point.

The areas around the canyon were so picturesque as well.

This area was called the Painted Wall - the rock "veins" were pretty awesome.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in this beautiful park.  The next day we went to Telluride and check it out - it's about an hour drive from our campground.  It's a historic mountain town and world class ski resort.  A very unique feature here is the Gondola that goes from Telluride to Mountain Village - it's 2.4 miles and takes about 12 minutes.  The highest point is San Sophia Station (elevation 10,540 feet) and the only reason to get off there would be to ski!  It opened in 1996 and is free to everyone - the first and only of its kind in the United States.  The majority of funding is provided by the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association and its members.

As we were arriving into town, there was a herd of elk near the road.

The downtown has many charming shops and restaurants

Our chariot awaits!

Views of Telluride as we ascended

Returning to Telluride - Mountain Village is behind us. 

Returning to Telluride

Time for lunch at a local favorite - The Butcher and The Baker

The architecture was pretty cool.

On our third and final day, it was pretty rainy, so we did laundry and ran errands in the morning and afternoon, then headed into Ouray - another charming town about 20 minutes from our campground - for dinner.  After dinner, we walked around the town - the rain was clearing and the architecture, lighting, and clouds made for some beautiful photos.

The next day, it was time to head to our next destination - Mesa Verde National Park, our 9th National Park visit this summer.  Once again, it was a beautiful drive across the Colorado countryside as we headed southwest to Mesa Verde.

We arrived to Mesa Verde and stayed right inside the National Park.  It was dry camping - no water, sewer, or electric provided.  We had perfect weather - lots of sun to fuel our solar panels and nice cool evenings so we didn't need the AC. 

As we drove into the park - we enjoyed beautiful views of the area.

Point Lookout - you see this when you first drive into the park and we could see it from our campground too.

Our campsite with Point Lookout behind (the other side of the previous photo)

When we went for a walk around the campground that evening, lots of mule deer were around.

Mesa Verde is a unique national park in that it holds the distinction of being the first national park (established in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt) created explicitly to preserve human cultural heritage rather than natural landmarks. The park spans over 52,000 acres and safeguards a highly concentrated archaeological treasure trove left behind by the Ancestral Pueblo peoples.  There are about 600 cliff dwellings (many of which are only 1-5 buildings) and the park service offers tours of the prominent ones.  You can buy tickets for the tours two weeks prior, so we set our calendars to make sure we were able to explore these fascinating and unique features of this park.  Our first morning, we toured Cliff Palace.  This is the largest cliff dwelling in North America featuring 150 rooms and 23 kivas and it is estimated 100 people lived here about 800 years ago.  The tour was 45-minutes and there were probably about 50 of us and they continuously run tours throughout the day.  

This was our first look at Cliff Palace from above - so cool.

The canyon was also so pretty - Cliff Palace is behind us to the left.

Our Park Ranger guide - Hayden - did a great job speaking about not only the dwelling, but the Pueblo culture.  You can see another tour group in the background.

This is one of the 23 Kivas in Cliff Palace - a place for gatherings and celebrations

At the end of the tour, leaving Cliff Palace was quite the climb - up several stairs and ladders.

We were across the canyon a few hours later, and Paul grabbed this shot of people climbing up the steps and ladders after their Cliff Palace Tour.

After our tour, we explored this area of the park further.  Balcony House is another larger dwelling, although there were no tours running when we were there.  The photos below are taken from an overlook on the Soda Canyon overlook trail.

The Soda Canyon views from the trail were fantastic.

After this hike, we headed to the Museum and had some lunch, then explored more of this area of the park.  

This was Square Tower House - four stories high, the tallest dwelling in Mesa Verde.  It is a feat of engineering as it is still standing 800 years later.

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at Park Point Overlook which is the highest point in the park.  The views were incredible and you can see the winding road that we drove. 

The next day, we went on our second tour.  Long House was another large dwelling located in a more remote area of the park - Wetherill Mesa.  This tour was 90-minutes and the walk to the dwelling was longer and the tour was more in-depth on the culture.  We had a beautiful day and it was fascinating.  Long House is the second largest cliff dwelling in the park and 700-800 years old.

We climbed up these two ladders and explored more "inside" of Long House

Park Ranger Hayden was our guide again!

Kiva at Long House - one of many

Along one of the wall of the dwelling was a Seep Spring - you can see the greenery growing there.

The rock overhangs and alcoves are all natural and the ideal place to build the dwellings.

After the tour, we hiked to another dwelling nearby called Step House which you can go through on your own.  Most of the larger dwellings require you to buy a tour ticket, but this one we did ourselves and it was great as there was a ranger there to answer any questions.

The walk down to Step House 

Interesting natural features on the rocks on the hike down

Some petroglyphs at Step House

A kiva at Step House

After Step House, we worked our way back to the campground.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Mesa Verde and found it so beautiful but also truly fascinating, creating a very unique and different national park experience.

The next day it was time to move on and continue our southward trek to Monument Valley and Page, Arizona.  We just got to Flagstaff today and will be here for 5 nights.  Then it's off to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta.  Will share more on our Arizona adventures on the next post.

We are so grateful for your love, support and for following along!  Lots of love, Jen & Paul