Mesa Verde National Park - Trip CANCELLED

[disneyfaninaz]

We're going to be visiting Mesa Verde Nat'l Park next month. We have a day and possibly a day and a half to visit. Does anybody have any touring advice or tips to make the most of our time?

TIA!

 

[buzz5985]

We were at Mesa Verde mid August for 1 day. We stayed in the park at Far View Lodge in a standard room. The room is old but comfortable - No AC and No TV - we didn't miss the TV but would have liked the AC. We ate at the restaurant right in Far View Lodge - it was very good. The prickly turkey appetizer was excellent!!! Since I booked the room, and a tour - I had a $50 gift card to spend at the restaurants so it worked out well.

Since we were there such a short time we signed up for one of the bus tours - that way we were able to see Cliff Palace because we weren't sure if we would be able to get tickets in the time frame we were there. The guide was great, the tour lasted a little over 4 hours and you got a good overview of the park. As it turned out if we had not signed up for the tour we would not been able to see Cliff Palace due to the fact that all the tickets had been gone for that day - or so I was told by a park ranger.

We arrived at Mesa Verde around 6 pm, on our drive up to Fair View Lodge we saw a Mother bear and her 2 cubs in a meadow. A little further up the road a young male ran in front of our car. So keep your eyes open!!!

Janis

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Thanks Buzz! We're planning on staying in Durango and driving to the park from there. Don't know if we'll get there early enough the day before to try to snag tickets for Cliff Palace for the next day. We'll certainly try.

We've got our fingers crossed that a budget will be passed in Washington so the parks don't close on October 1st!

 

[buzz5985]

Good luck. We were affected by that last spring. We drove up to Bar Harbor to visit Acadia and the park was closed. It didn't open until several weeks later. All the restaurants and hotels were waiting for tourists that never materialized.

Janis

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Thanks!

It is seeming more and more likely that our plans will have to be scrapped as a budget agreement in Washington is becoming less and less possible before next week. We have until Monday to decide, we'll see what happens over the weekend.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We had no choice but to officially cancel our plans and go with Plan B this morning. We'll try again next year.

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's a shame Wendy. Maybe you can plan a longer trip next year.

I will eventually get up to posting about it on my TR so you can read all about it then, but we ended up having to drive straight past Mesa Verde...lack of time...and we really needed to spend time with DH's cousin's in Pagosa Springs.

We did hit Chimney Rock nearer Pagosa....it's not quite Mesa Verde and if you have extra time, it is worth a stop.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

That's a shame Wendy. Maybe you can plan a longer trip next year.

I will eventually get up to posting about it on my TR so you can read all about it then, but we ended up having to drive straight past Mesa Verde...lack of time...and we really needed to spend time with DH's cousin's in Pagosa Springs.

We did hit Chimney Rock nearer Pagosa....it's not quite Mesa Verde and if you have extra time, it is worth a stop.

We'll definitely try again next fall. We ended up spending the weekend in Flagstaff and Sedona. We enjoyed much cooler temperatures and fall leaves.

Sorry to hear you had to miss Mesa Verde.

Unfortunately, we were looking forward to going to Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, but wouldn't you know, it is a National Forest Recreation area, thus closed when we were there. *#&$^&@ government! We ended up visiting 2 State Parks over the weekend instead.

However, the leaves were starting to change in the Oak Creek Canyon so it was worth the drive!

 

[PrincessInOz]

We'll definitely try again next fall. We ended up spending the weekend in Flagstaff and Sedona. We enjoyed much cooler temperatures and fall leaves.

Sorry to hear you had to miss Mesa Verde.

Unfortunately, we were looking forward to going to Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, but wouldn't you know, it is a National Forest Recreation area, thus closed when we were there. *#&$^&@ government! We ended up visiting 2 State Parks over the weekend instead.

However, the leaves were starting to change in the Oak Creek Canyon so it was worth the drive!

Red Rock Crossing was closed?

I hope you have pictures to share?