Alamosa,CO 387 km

Today's plans were twofold: to visit Mesa Verde National Park, the Pueblo cliff dwelling archaeological site and to ride Wolf Creek Pass on highway 160 in Colorado. Check both off.

Mesa Verde National Park is a World Heritage Site of fifty-two thousand acres, with elevations over 8,000 feet. It was a spectacular ride up to the top of the plateau from the valley floor. We spent about 2 hours visiting the Chapin Mesa Museum and taking a walk though "Spruce Tree House", one of the best preserved ruins.

Yes, we took water and emptied the bottle before we got back to the top

Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling from across the valley and below from up close

It was pretty impressive seeing this and hearing - we watched a movie - how they built and lived in these dwellings. They needed to be pretty fit to climb up and down. They planted their gardens on the top of the mesa being hunters and gatherers. The museum also had some artifacts - pottery and arrow heads, etc.
Next we attacked the almost 11,000 ft. Wolf Creek Pass.

On the way up Wolf Creek Pass

You may remember Wolf Creek Pass from CW McCall's song of the same title. No? Here is a verse to jog your memory:

Well, from there on down it just wasn't real purdy: it was hairpin county and switchback city. One of 'em looked like a can full'a worms; another one looked like malaria germs. Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know?

Raindancer out of breath at the top
It was a bit cold with the snow still present in the shadows.