Monday, October 24, 2016

A ladder, a tunnel, and a squeeze!

We have a couple of exciting announcements! We finally made it to Colorado and back into regular looking mountains! At least regular compared to the Alaskan mountains we've become accustomed to. The other exciting news it that we went to a National Park! Well, that would be exciting if we hadn't already been to 10 National parks in the past 3 weeks; but it's still exciting! We spent the night in Mesa Verde National Park and having arrived after dark we didn't know what we were in for until the next morning. A vast majority of the park was just driving up and around the massive plateau or mesa as the park's name suggests. It wasn't until we reached the very end of the park that the more unique aspects were revealed. Mesa Verde was home to a few ancient cliff dwellings, dating back to before the 13th Century. The only trouble with viewing most of these dwellings was the fact that they were about 150 feet below the cliff edge we were standing near. We bought tickets to go on a Ranger led tour of the Balcony House. For some reason, of the 40 people on the tour, Ashley had the only face that said "I'll volunteer to be the Ranger Helper and answer all of his ridiculous questions." They weren't too difficult but it's a little tricky to take tons of pictures with everyone watching you. So with that we started down the steep stairs to the cliff dwelling. We ended up below the dwelling and had to climb a 32 foot ladder to reach the entrance. The biggest benefit to Ashley being the helper is that we got to be the first up the ladder and spend the most time looking around. There were only a few small rooms to the house but it was still fascinating. Eventually Adam got roped into the Ranger's questions  too but the A-Team is too smart to be bested on ancient survival questions. After some Q&A and a few more features of the house, we climbed back out and made the long drive back towards the visitor center. We got our Jr. Ranger badges in record time and hit the road, heading North towards Denver.

The 32 foot ladder we had to climb to get to the cliff dwelling! 
Adam reaching the top of the ladder

Worming our way through some of the small passageways
The view from the cliff dwelling
Having fun even though we were picked on by the Ranger for the entire program!
The ancient cliff dwelling
Ashley helping out with a demonstration
Adam lead the group through the tunnel
We all had to crawl through this tunnel to get out! 
Climbing up the last ladder to get to flat ground
Leaving the cliff dwelling we had to climb two 15 foot ladders and walk along a very steep rock path! It was actually this steep! The picture is not exaggerating!
LOOK AT HOW STEEP THIS IS!!
After all the crawling, sweating and excitement we decided we had gone long enough without showers and laundry. We got a hotel in Montrose, CO for the night. How lucky we were to find Harry Potter on TV as we've spent the entire drive from Alaska listening to the books on tape.

So we spent the morning lounging in our hotel room because it was paid for so why not. This was a particularly fancy hotel because they served breakfast from 6:00 am to noon! We definitely got our money’s worth in waffles and bacon alone. After that it was back to the glamorous life of road tripping through the hot desert. We went from Montrose to the Black Canyons of the Gunnison National Park. The main attraction of this park was, you guessed it, a big black canyon. The sights were beautiful and we had a wonderful time walking around. But that wasn’t the most exciting part of our visit. We stopped into the Visitor Center (and more importantly the gift shop) before we headed out to the next stop. This was where the park really wowed us. Over half of the merchandise was on sale, some items as much as 70% off! We grabbed a few more items than usual and were happy to head out with our new treasures. However, the wonderful Park Ranger we talked to had even more excitement for us. He explained that over the season different companies would send products to all of the parks to show what new merchandise was available. This wasn’t always park specific so the park in Colorado had items from all over the country. The ranger said they get too much stuff to keep so there was an entire counter full of free items for the taking. We found some good books, laminated pamphlets and brochures, even a Blu-ray/DVD of the National Parks! We were ecstatic and left with arms loads full of goodies. Best park ever!
Black Canyon of the Gunnison

The Gunnison River that carved the massive canyon.

Next we headed over to Great Sand Dunes National Park which is in the southern part of the state. As we drove up we could see mounds upon mounds of sand off in the distance with mountains behind them. By the time we got there the sun was starting to set and it cast a beautiful pink sky over the dunes. We managed to get a campground for the night and the next morning we headed out for a hike on the sand dunes. We should have known that hiking across massive sand piles would not be the easiest thing. It was a lot of work but it was worth it. We walked right up to some of the sand ridges and had fun jumping off the edge to land in the cool sand. We felt like two kids in a giant sand box! It was so much fun! After playing around and getting sand in everything from our shoes to our eyes, we decided to head back to the car and see what else we could find.

Holy windy!

A fresh sand dune for us to jump off of!


It wasn’t long before we came to Colorado Springs and found our next exciting activity for the day! Something we're sure is on everyone's bucket list; Segway riding through a National Park! Garden of the Gods is a park in the city that has the coolest red rock formations sticking up out of the ground. It is very popular for rock climbing and hiking. There was a company that offered Segway tours of the park that we could not turn down. After flying through the safety course we were ready to go! Again, Adam was in boy heaven as he zoomed around the park on his Segway. Our tour guides name was Happy and he was awesome! He offered us cold beverages, snacks, and had a great sense of humor.

Pike's Peak in the background of the Garden of the Gods

The beautiful red rocks standing tall out of the ground.

No hands! Because we're professionals.

Maybe we need room to haul some Segways...


After a fun hour and a half ride on the Segways we were excited to go just a few minutes down the road to Cave of the Winds. Ashley booked us on the longest tour they had which was a lantern tour. We were shocked to find out that the lanterns we nothing but a metal bucket with a candle that slide into a hole in the bottom. That was the only light offered the entire tour! It was a crazy experience as we headed into a cave that had no walkways, lighting fixtures, railings, or anything. It took a while getting used to but soon Adam thought it was the coolest thing to use these bucket lamps and was playing with the candle a little more than listening at times. The guide taking us through the cave lead us through some tight places and told us folklore and ghost stories of the cave. It was such an interesting caving experience and we had a great time! As we left the cave it was 84 degrees at 5:00 pm! We decided we were too sweaty and gross to spend a night in the hot camper so hotel seemed like a great idea.

The next morning we headed to the car and we were surprised to see that we had a flat tire! There was a small piece of barbed wire fence stuck in the tire and we used our jump pack/air compressor to inflate the tire. A quick trip to the auto parts store and we managed to “fix-the-flat”. Hopefully it holds for the last 1,000 miles home! With four fully working tires we hit the road North towards Rocky Mountain National Park. This was the last park that we were visiting on the trip home. The drive felt long and was hot and dry until we reached the park. The clouds had rolled in and the cool air descended. We had just made it to Estes Park when the rain started to fall. Being tired and being ready to be home we did not spend long in the park. We were a little too eager to head home and we would come back to this park again, hopefully when the weather was better! So we hit the road! Next stop, home! 

-the A-Team

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