For the previous post in our “Utah in a Week” series, check out Day 2: Canyonlands National Park. Read on to see how we swung over to Colorado to visit Mesa Verde National Park for a day as part of a week-long Utah road trip!
DAY 3: MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK
Have you ever called an audible the morning of during a vacation? That’s what happened on Day 3 of our week in Utah. We had initially planned to visit the iconic Monument Valley at the border of Utah and Arizona. You may recognize this landmark from Western movies or the Soarin’ ride at Epcot in Disney World. The original itinerary was to drive 2.5 hours from Moab to Monument Valley, and backtrack a little over an hour to our hotel in Blanding, Utah.
However, before we checked out our Airbnb, we noticed that Monument Valley had an entrance fee. Since it is a Navajo tribal park, the fee wasn’t covered by our National Parks pass. It wasn’t a hefty cost by any means. But we wondered if there were any other places relatively nearby that we could use the pass we already had.
Then Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado caught our eye on the map. We had just recently heard about these amazing cliff dwellings. So we were thrilled to see it was only 2.75 hours from Moab and 2.5 hours to Blanding. This added only a little over an additional hour of driving compared to our plan for Monument Valley. So as we left our Airbnb, we made a last-minute spontaneous decision to head to Mesa Verde instead. While Monument Valley is a beautiful part of the desert landscape, we were excited to see something different for the day.
DETOUR TO COLORADO
We grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald’s in Moab for a second morning in a row (don’t judge us) and headed towards Colorado. Mesa Verde is not only a U.S. National Park but also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So we knew we were in for something special. We want to note that even though our National Parks annual pass got us into the park for free, we had to purchase tickets for any of the guided tours. But don’t worry. We found the ticket prices to be very reasonable and chose to go on both the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House tours.
You can easily do multiple tours in a day. Just follow the guidelines they provide you on how much time you should schedule in between. The two tours we chose were perfect for spending a day at this park. Be aware that the tours here may require ladder climbs, crawling through tunnels and hiking up and down uneven trails.
Before our tours, we drove to Spruce Tree Terrace Cafe for lunch. There’s nothing super special on the menu, but we just wanted to get a salad to accompany our picnic lunch. Crackers, cheese and summer sausage sound good when you’re at the grocery store. But after a few lunches of the same thing, we were definitely starting to get a bit tired of it and were craving some greens. Near the cafe is the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. Be sure to stop here for a great introduction to the Ancestral Pueblo people and the cliff dwellings.
CLIFF PALACE
The first tour we did was Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the park (and probably what you have seen in many Mesa Verde pictures). Before descending down the trail, the tour group meets at an overlook where you can see the Cliff Palace from above. You’ll get a sense of how large the cliff dwellings are by seeing how tiny the earlier tour groups look. Also, you may see part of the final ladder climb and think, “Wow, that looks really high! I don’t think I will feel comfortable climbing that…” Don’t worry. We thought the same thing too, but it’s kind of an optical illusion. When you’re actually climbing the ladder to end the tour, it’s not as high or steep as it looks from this starting point.
BALCONY HOUSE
Our second tour was through the Balcony House. This tour also involves a few ladders and even a tunnel you have to crawl through, so it’s a bit more physically demanding. But both tours provide an incredible up-close look at these cliff dwellings. It’s one thing to see them through photographs or from a distance. But it’s another thing to actually walk (and crawl!) in the footsteps of the Ancestral Pueblo people that lived here. It’s mind-blowing how they constructed these dwellings without modern technologies, and the tour guides do a great job explaining the significance of various buildings and structures.
So while we’re sure we would have had a great time at Monument Valley, we were really glad we made the choice to visit Mesa Verde instead. After the second tour, we began our drive back to Blanding, Utah. This is a small town with just a few lodging options. We chose a Rodeway Inn, which we had never stayed in before, but were pleasantly surprised by the customer service. Our original room smelled like cigarette smoke, so they upgraded us to a suite! Now, as expected, a suite at Rodeway Inn may not be as glamorous as a suite at a Ritz Carlton. But extra room is always appreciated during a road trip when we spend many hours crammed in a car. Was the suite size overkill for just the two of us? Absolutely. But we weren’t going to complain!
DINNER & LODGING IN BLANDING, UTAH
We grabbed dinner down the street at Pop’s Burritos. This local restaurant is similar to Chipotle where you go down the line ordering a custom burrito or other entree. We brought it back to the hotel (since we had so much space to eat there!) We loved the freshness of the ingredients and great flavors, and it was a nice change of pace from our previous meals on this trip. If you’re driving through Blanding, we recommend a stop here for lunch or dinner.
And that was Day 3 of our Utah road trip! Ok, maybe we should call it the Colorado Detour Day. But either way, we recommend swinging over to Mesa Verde National Park if you end up doing a Utah Mighty Five road trip! Let us know what some of your best spontaneous travel decisions were in the comments below. On Day 4, we hit up the least known Utah National Park and drive one of the most scenic routes we’ve ever been on.
Check out the rest of our “Utah in a Week” series: