Sunday October 3 - It was a 10 minute drive to Mesa Verde from our fantastic dispersed camping site. Once in Mesa Verde though, it was an hour drive to Wetherill Mesa. This section of the park is a less crowded area, which we decided to visit, since it had a paved bike trail. First we did the self guided tour of Step House. Most of the cliff dwellings you need to have tickets for a guided tour (which should be done a week or so ahead of time and we didn't do). After Step House we rode our bikes around to the other sites, which were mostly overlooks of cliff dwellings. It was a great day for a bike ride and there was hardly anyone there, so it was quite enjoyable!
Tuesday October 5 - It was about a 20 minute drive from our campsite to Pagosa Springs. It was fun to see the town and area we have heard so much about from Bob, as he used to come out for an annual hunting trip. The town is full of spas, but also has free pools to soak in all along the San Juan River We enjoyed a quick soak (I only soaked my feet) and then went for a walk along the river. It is a beautiful area, nestled at the base of the San Juan Mountains, which had quite a bit of fall color going on. On the way out of town we stopped and hiked the 1 mile trail to Treasure Falls and got a beautiful overlook view of the Pagosa Springs area. Next we were off to our 26th National Park...The Great Sand Dunes. This park was a 2 hour drive from Pagosa Springs. It was cool to be able to see it off in the distance a good 45 minutes before we got there. From what I read it was a 2 hour climb to the top of the 750 foot tall dune (the tallest in the country) and we decided that was more than we really wanted to do, so we hiked 15 minutes up a small dune and called it a day. This was the last sightseeing we had planned, and we would be heading home after a visit to Aunt Gerry/Uncle Gene and then a few days fishing with Bob. Gotta say it was quite a trip, and we're a bit sad our next big trip isn't until mid January!!
