US-89. Return Trip Day 5. "Mesa Verde National Park"

Tuesday, July 26th 2016.  The goal for today is to ride from Ridgway, Colorado to Mesa Verde National Park, which is about 135 miles away. 

I get up, pack all the gear and then made one trip down the gravel slope just carrying all the gear, instead of using the cart. I thought my arms would fall off as I struggled with all the gear . I just could not bring myself to travel all the way down the slope to get a cart. 

I make my way back to Ridgway and head up into the hills towards Telluride. This is now the ride that I was expecting. I am now going up to 11,000 feet with twisting roads, and big trees and cool air. 

I make it about half way to Mesa Verde and I run into 4 adventure riders that came up behind me at a road construction stop. The leader tells me he was in Mesa Verde the day before and I should immediately when I get there go all the way to the end to see the Cliff Palace.  He says that Cliff Palace the best. He also tells me that he and his friends are from Atlanta and had shipped their bikes out for a 3 week Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona tour. One of his other friends was from Denver, but had already left the group.  I spend the next hour following them through the roads at a higher rate of speed than I would have traversed by myself, but I wanted to hang with some other bikers, even if it was just for a bit. I was having so much fun with them that I miss my turn by ? mile because I was not paying attention. 

I arrive in the town of Manos where I have an incredible vegan burrito with red and green chili sauce. After lunch I go to Mesa Verde and grab a great camp site, because for once I was there early in the day. As I pull up to my camp spot there was a dear standing right there in the site eating leaves. Got to love the wildlife in Colorado. I have seen about every kind of animal running into the road in front of me.  Dear, Elk, Fox, squirrels and other things that I cannot name. 

I had finished setting up around 1:00 pm and then head out to the Cliff Palace.  When I get there I find out that you need to have purchased a tour ticket to actually get to step foot in the place There was no way I was going to be able to get in since it was already after 2:00 pm and the tours only run through 4:00 PM. A major Bummer, but not expected these days.

I really like this Park. It is big but not overly crowded.  There are actually many ruins that you can see or visit if you have the time. There is also lodging at “Far Point”, which is half way through the park.  It looks like some of the rooms have great views all the way to Ship-Rock.  On good days you can see four states from the high point in the park.   The park also has free showers and coin laundry. What a deal!  I will take Mesa Verde over Yellowstone any day of the week. I need to come back and spend more time here. 

Tonight I will see what I can find to cook up in the Park general store.   I had purchase two top-roman packages at the Park general store. Tomorrow, I will be off to Taos and Santa Fe areas. Where I will end up, I do not know. 

As I am putting the cover over the bike for the evening, Tom comes by on the way to the rest room. “This is quite a touring bike” says Tom who comes from the Estes Park area. I tell him that it was not originally a touring bike but I made some changes. Tom is interested in how I get the whole camp on the bike. Tom says “My wife and I carry many things in our RV. I would love to get by with less”.  I talk to Tom for about 20 minutes before his wife comes by to see what Tom is up to. Ann wants to know what Tom is talking about. The two of them make quite an interesting pair. I bet you could sit with them around their campfire for hours talking about everything from A to Z. I am wearing my old goose down jacket that I bought when I was 16.  Ann says “you can tell you are from California because you are wearing a jacket”.  

While cleaning up after dinner, I accidentally throw the second unused top roman away in the bear Dumpster with the garbage in a plastic garbage bag.  I wake in the middle of the night realizing my mistake.