Before we get to the beautiful cliff dwellings of southwestern Colorado, Hope and I started our day at sunrise with a walk around the resort in 23 degree weather. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I despise the cold, BUT it was truly amazing and I’m glad I did it. Check out these stunning pictures!

That’s “The Mother” behind her. Deepest hot springs in the world, but averaging 144° temps means no swimming in that one!
Aside from the Blue Lagoon pool, this was our favorite soaking tub

After saying goodbye to Pagosa Springs, we headed on west!

Destination: Mesa Verde National Park.

This was a top choice of Hope, but we were all looking forward to it. First stop, the visitor’s center, duh!

There are lots of pullovers and lookout points on the drive up to the mesa.

Like a lot of places, things close or slowdown during the off season, so we couldn’t take the ranger guided tour of the cliff dwellings and something’s were closed, like Far View Lookout, though we still stopped and enjoyed the views from the observation deck.

Funny story! You walk down this path and through a tunnel to get there. It echos in a strange way. Just before I took the pic of them in the tunnel, Katy farted and it sounded like a loud didgeridoo. ?

Next stop the museum and Spruce Tree House

The girls are now awake and wanting to go to breakfast so speeding this up with a few of my favorite pics. If you’d like to see more, feel free to find me on Facebook “Julie Trettel” my personal account for the photo dump I’ll do later today today.

After Mesa Verde we made a mad dash for 4 corners. We just wanted ONE pic of each us standing in a different state (even though we know it’s not “technically” in 4 states, just New Mexico) and maybe one of K doing a bridge across the 4 corners. We got stuck in construction traffic and arrived at 4:59 to a closed gate. ?

Don’t let her fool you, Katy was not this upset. On the first take, B threw out her hands and smacked K in the head…that’s the real reason for the pathetic look, but hey, made for a great picture! ?

On to Utah from there stopping at a cute little diner called Patio Drive-in. Bethany got really excited about their banana split shake.

We stayed the night in Moab, UT and on my sister and niece’s recommendations are heading out to Arches National Park for this morning’s adventure. A change from our loose plan of Bryce Canyon.

We’ll see where life takes us next!