In July of 2015 we set out on a grand vacation through the southwest. We traveled for 21 days and over 6,000 miles, visiting 5 states and 9 National Parks. We explored new places and met up with old friends. Overall, it was an incredible journey and everyone learned so much. You can view all posts about our wild west adventure here.
Destination: Mesa Verde National Park
Date of Visit: July 2015
Kids: Cole (age 8) & Kiley (age 5)
Length of Stay: 2 Days
After Hiking the Fiery Furnace at Arches National Park, we headed to one of my favorite National Parks, Mesa Verde. We decided to stay at the Far View Lodge inside the park at Mesa Verde and I’m so glad we did. The kids loved it and there was tons of wildlife roaming around.
We started out with an early 700 Years Tour. I had booked this ahead of time and it was a great tour for the kids. Since we had done so much hiking on at Arches, they were glad to travel around by bus and just do some short hikes.
We toured the famous Cliff Palace and both kids just loved the history and stories that the Ranger shared with us.
Our tour guide was amazing.
Deer outside our Lodge room.
Highlights: The kids loved the history and artifacts we learned about at Mesa Verde. My son especially like this National Park. The bus tour was perfect for us. I know that you can get individual passes and go to the sites yourself, but since we were so tired from Arches, I’m glad we did it this way.
What We Would Change: The food inside Mesa Verde was horrible. At one place the kids were served chicken tenders that were raw in the middle. I had not planned to stock up on groceries before heading into Mesa Verde and I really should have.
Recommended Reading: I highly recommend the Foder’s guide to National Parks of the West, we used it when planning our trip and it was a great resource. I liked that there were plenty of suggestions to exploring the parks with kids.
