We took our annual road trip this past week and this year we decided to stay in Colorado. It was a trip to the southwest of the state to visit Mesa Verde National Park and some of the more remote areas of Colorado.

We began early last Sunday morning to drive to Telluride. After lunch in Parachute we stopped in Palisade for some peaches and cherries. They were delicious. Then it was on to Telluride where we arrived around 4pm. It was just enough time to do a hike to the famed Bridal Veil Falls. The hike started a couple of miles out of town, but there were no bikes available to rent and no Uber or Lyft, so we turned a three-mile hike into a seven-mile hike. Needless to say it was a late dinner to say the least.

After an early breakfast, we were out the door for our first big hike of the trip. The Ice Lake and Island Lake loop trail outside of Silverton is renowned as one of the most picturesque hikes in Colorado. It didn’t disappoint, it was spectacular. Then it was on to Durango for dinner and to the Starry Nights B&B outside of Mancos, close to the entrance of Mesa Verde.

The next morning was our earliest start of the trip. We had booked the 700-Year Tour of Mesa Verde National Park, and we had to be there by 7:45 a.m. We went on a bus tour that included several stops to see the ancient cliff dwellings, which were all built between 1100 and 1200 AD and were then abandoned as the tribes moved out, they think because of a lack of water.

We were able to get up close to Cliff Palace and actually look inside some of the buildings, which were remarkably well-preserved after 800+ years. In the afternoon Marcy and I went on a short hike (the kids didn’t want to go) around Spruce Tree Canyon.

With half of the park closed we decided the next day to head south to see Aztec Ruins National Monument near the town of Aztec, New Mexico. After the tour, we had great context for what we saw there as it is thought that some of the cliff dwellers moved south to places like Aztec given the more reliable water supply.

We then drove on to the Four Corners region but we had a little mishap along the way. Waze was telling us to go north but I wanted to see Shiprock and stay in New Mexico. This proved to be a bad decision as the road was closed and we had to take a detour on some very rough roads. We got a warning that one of the tires in the Tesla was having problems so with Anna driving we crawled the 8-mile detour in about an hour. At one stage Jude decided to run and we couldn’t even keep up with him.

Thankfully, we arrived at Four Corners without incident but it was still 100 degrees. There were some Native American vendors and Marcy bought a beautiful new copper ring. The Four Corners is in the Navajo Nation and it was a little depressing seeing the rampant poverty in this region.

After three nights in the eclectic Cowboy Cabin it was time to move on. We loved our stay there and it did live up to its reputation. On our last night, Marcy and I went for a nighttime hike to check out the stars, which were beautiful. The crescent moon set around 11:30pm and I stayed up late to see the dark sky from the Cowboy Cabin. It was the most stars I have seen in many years, you could really see cloudiness of the Milky Way clearly.

Our first stop this day was at Chimney Rock, one of the only geological formations on the planet that also lines up perfectly with the beginning of the moon’s 18.5-year cycle. The ancient tribes here built what was thought to be a temple that lined up with the gap in the rock formation.

Then it was on to Pagosa Springs, and the Silver Thread Byway. We stopped at North Clear Creek Falls and then did a short hike along the Colorado Trail before heading to Lake City for the night, a tiny town of 400 people. But we found a great place for dinner while we charged the car. The next morning it was on to Monarch Pass where we did another short hike before getting to Mt Princeton Hot Springs just before 4pm.

There are several pools at the resort, all fed by the natural hot springs flowing in the area. So, most of the pools are hot but the river was cold because it is running so high, but there are some warmish patches. We each did a cold plunge in the creek each day which was highly invigorating and then soaked in one of the warm pools.

Our last night we dined at the resort steakhouse and then this morning we drove back home. It was a great trip, we got to see a lot of Colorado and stayed in some beautiful places.