Adventures to Southwest Colorado - Day 5

This was our last day of our trip and we have one more National Park to check off! So, we left fairly early in the morning and headed for the Black Canyons of Gunnison National Park. It was a fairly easy drive and we got there in about 1.5 hrs.

The Canyons were pretty impressive but the weather again was trying to rain. We managed to get one hike in at the park before it was time to go as it was a LOOOOONNG way home.

We passed thru some beautiful passes on the way and tried to remember names of places as potential places to camp in the future.

It was over all a super fun trip and we got to do quite a few new things. This was probably the longest that we've driven with the kids and we've survived!! Which means, we can go further next time!! :) Though to be honest, i'm not sure my sanity can hold it together much!!

Adventures to Southwest Colorado - Day 4

Ouray is a cute little town nestled in the moutains. While we were there, it rained almost all the time which provided a nice change in temperature. It did stay clear enough for us to do 2 quick morning hikes. The first hike we did was really close to our apartment. While waiting for Tyler to finish his Kumon, Cody and I decided to go check it out.

He was particularly adventurous that day and we actually both made to the top of the falls. For once, without Daddy to support him in his climbing, he had to do a lot of it on his own! :)

After Tyler was done, we went to check out Box Canyon Falls(surprisingly impressive). There were several hiking routes to go see the Falls. But they were all so pathetically short, we did ALL of them just to rake in the miles. One of them took us over the falls which was fun! The next one took us close to the falls at the bottom which the boys loved and the last one was just a walk around the area. We then had a picnic lunch at one of the pavilions as we enjoyed the nice views around us.

After lunch, we went to visit a Gold Mine. It was the kids' first mine and also on top of nap time, so we didn't know what to expect. As usual, some incentives were given to encourage good behavior. Tyler was very gungho about the trip and as usual marched along like a little trooper while Cody was running out of steam as we marched 1500 ft into the mine.

They managed to stay quiet during the entire time of the tour and kept asking about Tommy Knockers. So, they were quite happy to get their Miner's Hat at the end of trip. By the time we got out of the mine, it was cold and wet and made it conducive for nap.

We all napped for 3 hrs!!! We finally woke up and went for a relaxing dip in the Hot Springs. Another first for the kids and Tyler had to take a swimming test and the life guard was very impressed with his swimming. It was a good hour before we could drag the kids out of the warm pool and headed back to town for dinner.

Cody and I made it to the falls

Cody had to do a lot of his own climbing

View from top of Box Canyon Falls

Bridge across the falls

They found a small tunnel(old tunnel)

View of us on the bridge and all the way down

Route to the bottom of the Falls

Strong current from the falls

The kids at the bottom

The metal walk ways

Picnic lunch at the Falls

Who decided it was a good idea to run in the rain??

Or put on tails??

Beginning of mine tour

Keep on going...

Some drilling work!!!

We made it!

Tyler the miner

They got their prize.. though Cody was very guilty when i asked him if he walked all the way..

Warm pool, cold evening...

Feeding some fish by the hot springs

Adventures to Southwest Colorado - Day 3

After an awesome first day at the ruins, the boys were excited to know that we were going to visit two more! The first one we did was Balcony House. It had quite few ladders to climb(one of them was a 32 ft ladder) and a cliff face exit which was a little daunting to hear. The ruin itself was not terribly exciting but the ranger talked about their daily lives which was interesting to hear!

Despite the physical challenges on this tour, kids did great and even had lots of fun! After that we drove around the Mesa Top Loop to view some other dwellings from afar and visit some ruins on the top of the mesa, before we broke for a quick lunch. Then we headed to Long House which was our last ranger tour.

To get to the Long House, we had to ride a tram which was exciting for the kids. By now, Tyler was really familiar with the tours and was always eager to be the 2nd in command after the ranger. Everytime the ranger said, let's continue, he'd jump and run along behind him and he'd be very excited to tell us he was the first behind the ranger.

Long House was also another impressive dwelling. It was interesting to see some greens at the bottom of the cave to give us an idea how the Indians survived in the very dry climate. As we made our steep hike back to the top, we thought for sure the kids were ready to konk out.

But no, they want to go for ONE last one(the Step House) which was a mile walk from the ranger station at the Long House. It was a hot hike down but I came prepared with an umbrella! It was cool because this cliff dwelling had a pit house and had two civilization that was separated by 200 years in one site. They also had some ancient step.

With that, we wrapped up our trip to Mesa Verde and the kids were wiped out and dozed off before we got out of the park.

We then started our drive to Ouray which was another few hours away. I slept the first part of the drive and woke up to a completely different landscape. We were in high country and were surrounded by beautiful mountains and green pine trees.

We then made our way through the pass and went on the Million Dollar Highway which had views that were worth a million dollars!! The drive though beautiful is not for the faint of hearts! We reached Ouray just about dinner time and after checking in to our next home away from home, headed over to a Saloon type restaurant for a nice meal of steak.

Posing on the stairs at our house cute house in Mancos

Start of descend for Balcony House

Our first 32 ft ladder

At Balcony House

You can see this dwelling is perched on a cliff

The cliff face upward climb

Tyler actually managed to carry Cody

Tyler our official postcard writer

On the way to the Long House

Some short ladder

Eager Beaver Tyler listening to the ranger(notice the moss)

Always ready to run after the ranger

Some nice landscape

This was Step House

Some amazing clouds that day

Adventures to Southwest Colorado - Day 2

The plan for the day was to explore the Mesa Verde National Park which is home to the cliff dwellings of the ancient Pueblo Indians about 700 years ago. There were a few ranger tours that we can do and some of them did sound a little daunting for little kids. So, i started us off with Cliff Palace which seemed the most interesting but not as physically challenging.

This was by far the biggest cliff dwelling and had a few ladders for the kids to maneuver so that we can gauge their ability and interest. Turned out they loved it, even when they had to sit through the ranger talks during the whole tour(though some grim threats had to be doled out).

It was also interesting for us to explore these ancient dwellings and learn more about the history in this area.

View of the cliff dwelling across the canyon

Tyler was excited to start the descent

Cody was also excited

Some ladder to get up

The Cliff Palace

The kids loved it

Tyler even went on his own to check out ancient painting

Ancient mud wall

Tyler

Family pic!

Due to several fires, the park is severely scarred with dead and burnt trees which i found eerily beautiful. And the plants take about 100-300 hundred years to grow back. So, it's going to look like this for a LONG time.

When the kids got out of the Cliff Palace tour, they were raving about how brave they were and how fun it was. So, we decided to go check out a smaller site before we break for lunch. The Spruce Tree house is a smaller site that we could go explore ourselves. It was a short hike down to the dwelling and it had a kiva(small underground round room).

The Spruce Tree house

Ladder into the Kiva

Of course he had to go down(we all did!)

Someone's a little grumpy

Parting family picture

On our hike back up

Tyler enjoying an Indian fry bread

After lunch, it was nap time and we figured it was a good time to head over to Four Corners which was about 1.5 hrs away.

At Four Corners

1 family 4 states

Alan confirming it was indeed the four corners(it was a little off)

Some interesting rock formations

After we got back to our rental property, the kids explored the surroundings a little found a little tractor.

Beautiful Sunset