Day 9: Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

junToday did not start well. It was raining off and on through the night, and this morning it changed to hail - pea-sized at the largest, but hail nonetheless. Plus it continued to rain off and on for the first half of the day. Ashley had a little altitude sickness, and Anna and Katelyn felt it a little, too. It meant we had a slow start to the day and didn't get up to the Visitors' Center until about 1:30 pm. The weather improved after that and we were able to take a Ranger-guided tour to the cliff dwellings.

As we have come to expect, the Rangers give very good tours and lectures, and on top of all that, Ranger Jose was a "friggin' genious", and a really funny guy! Because a lot of the cliff dwellings had already been restored before the National Park System made the decision to leave these things alone, we were able to walk around and upon some of the ruins. It was very interesting to think about why and how the Ancient Puebloans decided to live in buildings built into the mouth of a cave. We ate lunch late, at a picnic site further into the park, while we started our Junior Ranger booklets.