Chapin Mesa

On Saturday morning, after I left the campground, I drove up the hill to Chapin Mesa. There are several cliff dwelling sites in this area of the park.

These four photos are from

Geologic Overlook

an easy paved 1/2 mile walk

Next stop was the Cliff Palace Overlook and the Soda Canyon Overlooks. I did not take the ranger-led tour to Cliff Palace. I may do that at a later date. 

 Cliff Palace

"The largest cliff dwelling in MVNP

Visible from several overlooks.

Ranger-led tours provide access

to the dwelling spring through fall."

 Cliff Canyon

If you hike to the Soda Canyon Overlooks, you can get a view of Balcony House.  This is the only way to see it without the tour.  

 Dark storm clouds, thunder,

some lightning and a few drizzles,

then the sun came back out.

 part of Balcony House at the left of this photo

"Balcony House: a smaller cliff dwelling,

not visible from the road

 The most challenging ranger-led tour."

Balcony House in the center of this pic

the arch is over the balcony

(click on photo to enlarge)

I did not go on any of the tours, my goal for this weekend was to do a lot of walking and hiking.

Three photos above from

Soda Canyon Overlook Trail

1 1/2 miles fairly easy with

some rock steps at various points along trail

I still have not gone to Park Point Lookout, Cedar Tree Tower, The Petroglyph Point Trail at Spruce Tree, the Point Lookout Trail or the Prater Ridge Trail. 


And..... Wetherhill Mesa does not open until the end of May - there are more cliff dwellings and hikes to do there.


Today, I heard that one of the girls working at the front desk is looking for a hiking partner, so I may be able to do some of the longer hikes soon.


On Saturday I also went to the Far View Sites, photos from Far View will be my next post.

Knife Edge Trail

I camped at Morefield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park on Friday and went on this hike Friday afternoon.


"This fairly level trail follows the park's historic entrance road and leads to breathtaking views of the Montezuma Valley.  Difficult to maintain and unsafe for vehicles the Knife Edge Road was later converted to a hiking trail."

click on photos to enlarge and see more detail

2 miles round trip, with a 60' elevation gain. This is an amazing hike, easy to do, and the views are fantastic, up in the clouds, at the edge of the cliff.

You walk out and back on the same trail, I stopped for a few minutes to sit on a rock and take it all in.  It would be a great place to take a lunch and spend an hour or so just sitting and looking at the views. I plan on going on this hike again.

There were many rock slides in this area, you can see rocks of every size and shape on the trail and hillside. Seeing this area in its natural state, I can't imagine that anyone ever drove over this terrain. I'm sure it was just a dirt road, nothing like the roads we now drive on into the park.

view from the trail

When I left the campground on Saturday morning, I drove to Chapin Mesa in MVNP and went on a few more short hikes. I will create separate posts for these because I took a lot of pictures.

iPhone...5g and a busy week

I am now using my iPhone as a personal hotspot, I set this up with Sprint and I will get 5g per month for $29. It is on a month to month basis, I told them I did not want to be tied into any contracts, because I did not know if this would solve my problems. Is 5g enough???

Spruce Tree House

If this works out, I will cancel the Sprint Mobile Hotspot that I have.  The Mobile Hotspot is unlimited, as long as your are in a Sprint serviced area. The mobile hotspot  is more expensive per month and charges extra for roaming over a specified amount per month.  My iPhone is roaming at this location, but I was told that the iPhone plan does not charge anything extra for roaming. Sprint sends me an email when I have used up all of my free roaming on the hotspot, I would hope they do the same for the iPhone  if I am going to incur any additional charges. I can also check my account online and will do that at the end of this week.


It has been a busy week, but I am not working a full 40 hour week yet. My schedule shows 5 days a week, 8:30 to 5:00, with a mandatory 1/2 hour lunch break. I don't think there is enough work for me to work 40 hours each week, this is ok because it gives me more time to explore the area. My normal days off (after next week) will be on Friday and Saturday.


Last Thursday was a full day of Orientation. I started training in the Accounting office on Friday and then on Saturday I trained in the Lodge on the computer systems for the front desk and gift shops.  I will use reports from these systems in my job in the accounting office.


On Monday afternoon, we were treated to a 1/2 day tour of Mesa Verde National Park from Aramark, this tour usually costs around $45.00.  The bus driver/guide was excellent.  He knows a lot about the history of this area.

Cliff Palace

this photo is from my iPhone, I will need to get some

photos with my "zoom" lense camera

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in the park.

You can purchase a ticket for a

"ranger-led" tour to get closer to the dwelling.

Tuesday was my day off this week,  I rode the employee shuttle into town. They will drop you off and pick you up at any store.  Most of the employees just go to Walmart.  I asked to be dropped off at City Market, about a mile from Walmart, I told the driver he could pick me up at Walmart.  I was able to stop in a few stores and take a walk down the main street and see what type of shopping is available.


On Wednesday evening, we went to a food tasting in the Metate Room, a fine dining restaurant at the Lodge.  The Lodge and dining room is not open all year, today was "opening day" for this season.  All of the food was fabulous.  We had appetizers, shrimp, salads, chili, and several entrees of chicken, quail, beef medallions, elk, wild boar, pork tenderloin and trout and 2 different vegetarian entrees. Even though the portions were small for us (we divided a normal servings between 6 at our table).  It still works out to each of us eating more than 2 entrees.  After awhile, I was taking a very small sampling of each item. 

Square Tower House

A large multi-storied dwelling, built in the A.D. 1200's.

This 80 room complex was only accessible by

hand-and-toe-holds hammered into the rock.

Imagine carrying food and water up and down such a precarious

staircase or using hand-made ropes to lower materials to your cliff house.

My manager will be up at the Lodge for the next 5 days, training the Night Auditor, so I will be on my own for a few days.  There are reports that we work on in the morning that need to be sent to the managers of all the departments before 11am.  I have been doing these reports alongside my manager and hope that no problems come up over the next few days.



Today I finally received some passwords and access to the computer systems under my own "login", a key to the accounting office and an alarm code for the front door of the office building.


The work is different that what I did as a tax preparer.  Even though I did accounting work for a lot of small businesses, the forms and programs are different here.  In the end, it is still numbers and debits and credits and balancing. 


I have not worked on all of the systems yet because all of the different parts of the park are not open yet.  The campground opens in the middle of May.  With the Lodge and Restaurant opening today, I will have some different spreadsheets to work on tomorrow.  I am enjoying the work and my co-workers.  I am meeting many different people, some workampers and some single women without an RV that are staying in the women's dorm.  There are not a lot of really young workers, just a few that are under 20.  Most of the younger staff that are working in the dining room and bar are in their 30's.


Since the 3g service on my iPhone is unlimited, I will continue to use the iPhone, without my computer, to check email and blogs and search for things on the web.  It is sometimes difficult to comment on blogs, using the iPhone, and it's not easy to type on the small keypad.  I read some blogs on the Kindle Fire when it is linked to my iPhone hotspot, but it takes too long to open blogs that have a lot of photos.  So, I am still working through all of this, it is an adjustment not to have "instant" access to the internet. It's probably a good thing, it will get me away from the computer and I will spend more time outdoors.