Day 3 - we had another long day ahead of us. Lots of driving (7 hours without stops!). We woke early and packed up the room - ready to go by 7:30. We were hoping to get to Mesa Verde by 8 am. As I finished packing up the room, Matt and the kids headed down to the breakfast room to scope out what was available. Matt was thrilled to find bacon and potatoes at a few of the hotels - including this hotel in Cortez. Alex snapped this photo of Matt drinking from his orange juice box. So dainty! Haha!
The drive to Mesa Verde was short and beautiful! The hotel was only 15 minutes away from the park entrance! As we drove to the park and headed towards the park loop roads, we were amazed by the peacefulness surrounding the morning. It was Memorial Day, but everyone seemed to be sleeping in. This worked for us!
As we entered the park, this was our view! Wow! Maddie asked, in a serious tone, with underlining fear..."Are we going to the top of that rock?" We assured her that we weren't. However, as we continued to climb and zig-zag, Matt & I started to wonder where we would end up in comparison to the rock! Luckily, we didn't end up driving on or around the rock!
Our first stop of the day was at the Navajo Canyon View.
Sun Point View - our first views of the Anasazi Dwellings. WOW!!! We noticed a few different dwelling locations as we enjoyed the views from this stop. It was hard to imagine any group of people being able to build something like what we were seeing.
We especially enjoyed the quiet of the morning. We had 2 other vehicles with us, stopping at the same stops, but for the most part, we had the park to ourselves at this point. It was surreal.
In this next picture, you can see the Cliff Palace Dwellings. Unfortunately, the Cliff Palace Loop Road was closed for road construction. We were thrilled to be able to see them from this vantage point. If you notice the outcropping of rocks on the left of this picture, this is our next stop (Sun Temple).
Sun Temple Overlook was our next stop. As I mentioned, this overlook gave us a great closeup view of the Cliff Palace Dwellings. We ended up spending a lot of time at this stop - there was lots to explore! The Sun Temple was pretty impressive as well.
You can see the Sun Point View Overlook from this picture.
Our last stop along the Loop Drive was at Spruce Canyon, to see Spruce Tree House. We found all of the previously "missing" tourists at this stop! Oh well, the quiet was nice while it lasted.
As we drove out of the park, we stopped at the highest point in the park, Park Point Lookout. On a clear day, you can see for hundreds of miles in every direction!
This is the pathway leading up to the lookout - as you approached the bushes, you could hear the swarm of bugs (we assume that they were some kind of cicada). It was the creepiest, weirdest feeling as you walked through and heard them all around you. Watch the video for a better understanding!
Here is one of the cicadas (look closely on the brown branch)
Sometimes it takes a few times to get everyone looking - even as teenagers!
Ahead of us, the road was long and lonesome!
We saw quite a few dust devils.
While we couldn't officially visit Monument Valley (it is on Navajo Nation Territory, which is temporarily closed due to Covid), we were able to drive along Hwy 163 to see some of the rock formations. We also stopped at the stretch of road along 163 where Forrest Gump stopped running.
More Dead Squirrels - judging from their reactions, the ground was hot!
We turned back north and stopped at Mexican Hat Rock to snap some pictures and to look for a letterbox.
These rock walls are located on Hwy 95, on our way to visit Natural Bridges National Monument. I love that you can see the road stretched out ahead of us!
With no one else in the park, the kids were able to "play" a bit. One of their favorites is "Ninja". I'm guessing this isn't just a Hart game...
It was fun to walk further into the canyons/gullies and away from the overlooks. God's splendor never ceases to amaze us!
Kachina Bridge
We left the park and started our drive to the hotel - just over an hour away. Back on Hwy 95, here are the rock formations that we drove through earlier, now coming from the other direction.
It was a bit windy...
We arrived at Natural Bridges National Monument late in the afternoon. While this park/monument doesn't see a lot of visitors (averaging just over 100,000 annually in 2016), when we arrived, it was very quiet - only one other vehicle in the visitor welcome center parking lot. We saw a total of 6-8 vehicles the whole time we were at this park. It was blissful, to say the least!
Sipapu Bridge (largest bridge in the park).
We would've loved to walk down to the base of the bridge(s). Unfortunately, time, temps & energy weren't on our side. We did enjoy some exploring as we went to the different overlooks, but never ventured too far down the trail.
Matt & Alex walked down a bit of the trail to explore. Matt snapped this picture of us from below.
I am so happy that we decided to visit this park. This stop had an * by it, during the planning phase and even the day of! It was out of the way - it added 2 hours of drive time, let alone the time to enjoy & explore within the park. While it was a "maybe" or "we can always scratch that last stop", we ended up keeping it on the agenda and truly became a favorite part of the trip!
We got to our hotel, unloaded the van and called in a pizza order. Matt left to find a few letterboxes, fill up with gas, pick up our pizza and stop at the store to purchase bread for our picnic lunch the next day. Day 3 was wonderful.
Day 3 Favorites:
Will - Playing Ninja at Natural Bridges, Dwellings at Mesa Verde
Maddie - Playing Ninja at Natural Bridges
Kaitee - Mesa Verde - the whole park!
Alex - Forrest Gump road
Matt - Mesa Verde, Seeing Maddie overcome her fear of walking out on rocks/ledges*
Becki - Mesa Verde, Getting pictures of the road/rock formations near Monument Valley
*She still has a very healthy fear for herself as well as for those she loves. She had a few (just short of) panic attacks when any of us would get "too close" to the edge of cliffs, etc. Today, Matt saw a change in Maddie - stepping out of her comfort zone. She told us that she didn't want to look back at this trip and have any regrets.
