Skip to main content

Day 40: Mesa Verde National Park

 

Thursday, Oct 13, 2022

My booking for the guided tour of Long House cliff dwellings was at 2pm, so I had plenty of time in the morning to explore and do a couple of short hikes. The car was also fully charged after being plugged overnight into the Tesla destination charger. I have been surprised during the trip with the low demand for the destination chargers. There were no other EVs from the 150+ rooms at the Far View Lodge. I assume this will quickly change in a few years as the number of EVs rapidly increases.

The first hike for the day was the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail, which provided a view of the Balcony House cliff dwelling across the canyon. 


After an early lunch at the Far View Terrace Cafe, I made my way to Wetherill Mesa. I did the short hike and self-guided tour of the small Step House.  I followed that up with a walk through the ruins of the Badger House Community.

 

 

 

 

The Long House tour was well worth the wait. The forest ranger who led the tour was great, went through the history, told lots of stories with a good sense of humor, and explained things well. 

Over 150 people lived in the Long House cliff dwelling around 1200 AD.  It was also a public gathering place for the surrounding communities.

 

 


After the Long House tour was finished, I left the Mesa Verde National Park and made my way towards the Four Corners Monument.  This is the only place in the US where 4 states meet at one point. It is also the place where I had planned to touch Utah for my token visit to the state. Unfortunately, when I reached the entrance gate of the monument, I found it had closed for the day. I was within 2000 feet of Utah, close but no cigar!  I could take a detour of a couple of hours to touch Utah in another place, but that did not seem worth it, plus I did not have enough charge left in the Tesla to be able to do it.  So, I declared this locked gate as touching Utah and drove on to my hotel in Chambers, Arizona.

The raw numbers for the day:

  • 278 miles driving, 16200 steps walking
  • 1 Tesla supercharger stop, previous night level 2 charging at hotel
  • 4 states - Colorado, Utah?, New Mexico, Arizona

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek, 2024

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek (KGL) has been on my bucket list for many years. It is known as the most beautiful trek in India, definitely one of the most popular. After lots of research and prep work, finally did the trek from July 29 - August 4 this year, along with four of my hiking buddies from the Bay Area. It was a dream come true - spectacular hiking with wonderful friends! The trailhead for the KGL trek is near Sonmarg. We carried only small daypacks during the 7-day trek. All supplies and luggage are carried by mules/horses. We had a support staff of 6 (guides, cook, etc.) for our private group of 5 hikers. Under overcast skies and the fog rolling in, we hiked past these shepherd huts at 9000 ft. These huts are used only in the summer months by the Kashmiri Gujjars (gypsies). A few hours into the hiking on the first day, we had a heavy downpour and the raingear came out. The locals were happy to see the first decent rainfall after a dry spell of 2 months. An auspicious start to our...
Post a Comment
Read more

Valley of Flowers Trek, 2024

Valley of Flowers is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2002, which has made it immensely popular. The best time to visit is during the monsoon season in July and August, when the peak flower bloom happens. I did this trek from Aug 6 - 11, 2024 with Trek the Himalayas  (TTH).  This was the second trek of my intense three weeks in the Himalayas and immediately followed the Kashmir Great Lakes trek .  During the trek it rained almost every day, but that did not dampen the beautiful experience. In addition to hiking in the Valley of Flowers, got to explore Rishikesh, Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib Gurdwara during this trip. Day 0:  August 5, 2024 .  The starting point for the trek is Rishikesh. Took a morning flight from Srinagar to Delhi and after a brief stop, a second flight from Delhi to Dehradun. The prepaid taxi from the airport to Rishikesh worked out well. Driving through the Rajaji National Forest was a bonus during the quick 30-minute ride.  Reached Ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

USA48 Road Trip: The Whole Story

  The whole story of my road trip across USA in a Tesla, captured in a series of blog posts below. My six-week adventure was from Sept 4, 2022 to Oct 15, 2022.  The links to the blog posts below are in chronological order. Best viewed on a larger screen  of a computer, not on a phone. Click on the photographs in the blog posts to see larger images.   Road trip across USA - Why? What? (July 10, 2022) Road trip in a Tesla - will it work? (Aug 11, 2022)  Day -2: Road Trip Delayed (Aug 27, 2022)  Day 0: Starting Road Trip Tomorrow (Sept 3, 2022)  Day 1: The Adventure Begins (Sept 4, 2022)   Day 2: A drive through Oregon (Sept 5, 2022) Day 3: Mount Rainier National Park (Sept 6, 2022)   Day 4: Reminiscing in Seattle (Sept 7, 2022) Day 5: KOA Cabin in Glacier National Park (Sept 8, 2022) Day 6: Hiking galore in Glacier National Park (Sept 9, 2022) Day 7: Drive from Glacier to Yellowstone (Sept 10, 2022)  Day 8: Yellowstone and G...
Post a Comment
Read more