Summer Vacation - July 6, Mesa Verde and Four Corners

We decided to sign up for the very first Cliff Palace tour for similar reasons that we did the last tour of the day yesterday.  We figured if we were the first group in than we wouldn't have to worry about people in front of us being in our photos.  We also got to the tour starting spot early and waited so we could go in at the front of the group.

Cliff Palace

This rock had fallen during the night, so our guide was quite troubled about it, she had us all wait before we went into the site while she radioed the Park Service about it.  We never heard if they let any more tour groups go through after us or not, due to the chance of more falling rock.

Tasha's pics from Cliff Palace Tour


After our Cliff Palace tour we drove to the other side of the park to go to Step House and Long House.  We didn't plan very well because we thought we could get lunch over there, but there was only a snack bar that had chips, candy bars and drinks and we were all pretty hungry.  We walked to the step house and did a hike to a view point where we could see Long House and then decided to forego our Long House tour.  There was a couple asking about going to tour it at the ranger booth, so we gave them 2 of our tickets so they wouldn't have to drive back to get tickets.

Pit House replica at Step House

Long House

We drove from Mesa Verde to Flagstaff, AZ and stopped on the way at 4 corners. It was super hot and the line was insanely long.  Last time I stopped there I thought it was kind of fun -- this time it was pretty miserable.  I think we all got sunburned and waited 45 minutes just to take some not-so-great pictures.

That night I did a few loads of laundry at the hotel and Jake took the kids for a swim in the hotel pool.