Day 13 - Cortez, Colorado

Last night, the temperature went down to -4.5 degrees C. It's not getting any warmer, but at least there was glorious sunshine this morning and less wind.

We went back to Mesa Verde Visitor Center to register ($3 per person..) to visit another cliff dwelling, Balcony House. Before joining the tour, we explored the Mesa Top Loop Road, a 6-mile drive located on the top of the mesa with short paved trails to view 12 easily-accessible archeological sites, including surface dwellings and cliff dwelling overlooks. On our way out of the drive, we saw and were able to photograph a red-tail hawk who nicely paused on a branch as we were driving by.

We then joined the ranger-guide who took our group down to Balcony House. This is the most adventurous cliff dwelling tour. This one-hour plus tour involved climbing a 32-foot ladder to enter the dwelling. Our guide gave us a most interesting talk on its location, etc. At the exit, we had to crawl through a 12-foot long by 18-inch wide tunnel, followed by a 60-foot climb up the open cliff face using two 10-foot ladders (see photo) and a series of stone steps. It was a real thrilling experience however we are glad we live in Pointe-Claire!! These condos are rather cold and hard to reach!!!

On our way out of the Park, we continued to explore and stopped at lookouts and viewpoints as well as four other villages (see photo) and a dry reservoir. The highest viewpoint was at 8572 feet where a firewatch station is located. Unfortunately they had a forest fire back in 2006 and damages are still quite visible.

The weather stayed nice and sunny but it never really warmed up, not like yesterday. When we got back to our campground for our second night in Cortez, it was only 9 degrees. Tonight they are forecasting -6.5 degrees C. We will be bundled up to be sure...