Mesa Verde – the hikes

Mesa Verde National Park is mostly about ancient Pueblan ruins.  The whole area is became a national park to protect over 600 different sites that hold historical significance.  The thing is that Vickie and I are hikers.  So we decided to stay extra days and hike whatever trails that had available.

We started out the morning with a hike to the top of the mesa that overlooks the valley to the park entrance.  It was the called the Sunrise point trail and it brought us to the top of the mesa with sheer 250 foot drops.

And we made sure the next people knew we were there

Then we moved on to the Petroglyph trail.  The trail wound under the edge of the sandstone cliffs.  We walked though strange eroded formations until we arrived at the petroglyph site.

The trail returned to the visitor center along the top of the mesa.  We finished the evening on another hike called the knife edge ridge to watch the sunset.

The plan is to travel to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.