Tag Archives: Mesa Verde National park

Anticipation Is Half The Battle

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Anticipation is often the hardest part of things that are scary or hard. I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I reminisce about summer adventures past.

Flying alone for the first time comes to mind. I hadn’t flown at all in years when I found myself planning to meet my Wyoming friend Johnna in Salt Lake City in 2018. I didn’t worry about it but the idea made me uncomfortable right up until the moment I was settled into my United Flight window seat. That’s when I discovered that flying alone was the most liberating experience of my life. 

Another thing that comes to mind is my visit to Mesa Verde National National Park in southwest Colorado. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is known for beautifully preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. Honestly, I had never heard of it until Johnna suggested it as part of our four corners region adventure. 

She and her hubby had driven through one day, stopping at an overlook to watch a ranger led tour explore one of the cliff dwellings. She talked about the beauty of the place and the exciting prospects of exploring ancient dwellings that not everyone can touch. Access is permitted only through ranger hikes. 

We agreed this would be the centerpiece of our trip until we discovered one small detail: to access the cliff dwellings, you have to climb ladders.

“Wait… what?” I asked.

Ladders? I don’t do ladders. I don’t do heights. I don’t do things that might result in my passing out or tripping and falling to my death. I am not the most graceful of our population so it seems a likely outcome that I will trip and hurl myself off the side of a cliff.

There are tours to three dwellings. The Square Tower House descends 120 feet and has steep drop-offs. You have to climb two 16 foot ladders and be able to scramble over large boulders, unassisted while carrying a minimum half gallon of water. All this for the bargain low price of $25 per person.

Just reading that description gave me heart palpitations so I crossed that off the list. 

Balcony House is just $8 per person but requires climbing a 32-foot ladder, crawling through an 18 inch by 27 inch tall tunnel for twelve feet and climbing a 66 foot open cliff face with uneven stone steps. All that before climbing two 18 foot ladders to exit.

Nope. What else they got? 

The final tour goes to Cliff Palace. It  descends uneven stone steps and requires climbing four 8-10 foot ladders. This one is also $8. 

Honestly, I would have paid the total sum of all three tour tickets to not have to do any this. But my dear friend Johnna knew exactly what to say to get me to agree to this. It was something to the effect of “do you want to be one of those people on the overlook watching others live life or do you want to be one of those people down there having fun? It just depends on the kind of life you want.”

Sigh. 

So I spent the next couple of months experiencing self inflicted vertigo every time I thought about what was to come. I hardly slept the night before and had a knot in my stomach right up until we began descending those stone steps. 

You know something? I hustled right up the first ladder with no trouble and just kept going. Honestly, the ladders weren’t bad even though the first one looks like something Fred Flinstone might have built. But it was eight feet and on the ground, angled enough that it didn’t feel like too severe of a climb.

The way out required some uneven stone steps and a ten foot ladder that went straight up. However, it wasn’t at all scary because it was in a crevice between stone so it felt sheltered.

I drag you along on that adventure to tell you this: the fear of what is to come is nearly always worse than the thing you have to do. That’s true for sad anniversaries and for hard work you procrastinate because you simply don’t want to do it. It’s true for those irrational fears we all have as well.

Your mind will always make things worse than they seem if you allow it.

I’m grateful that I did it and (don’t tell Johnna) I’m grateful she pushed me to go. She’s a good influence because she knows I’m capable of more than I think and doesn’t hesitate to force me to at least try. 

Want to read another account of Mesa Verde? The Wandering Canadians recently wrote a nice account that sent these particular memories bubbling to the top. Click here to read all about their visit!

The Snake Of Mesa Verde

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Mesa Verde National Park provided two opportunities to face fears. I told you about the first yesterday but didn’t mention that I met a snake.

In a visitors center

Loose on the floor.

Where it followed me into the ladies room.

We had freshly conquered the ladders and had stopped at the visitors center for a little souvenir shopping, restroom and cold drink. We had nearly reached the end of a window lined hallway approaching the restroom when movement caught my eye. Right next to me, there was a snake on the floor.

It had squeezed under a glass door that badly needed some weather stripping to keep out the heat and the snakes.

My choice was to keep going forward or turn and run. As I am apt to do in crisis situations, I chose wrong (I would have made a great sidekick to Lucy and Ethel). I kept going and proceeded into the restroom. To be fair, my travel pal was right behind me and I didn’t want to knock her down in my escape.

I say that like I really thought it through and I promise I did not. My only objective was to get away.

While I went into the ladies room, Johnna went in search of help. It came in the form of a young guy who was sweeping floors. But when he saw the snake, he announced that snake removal was above his pay grade.

You might wonder why we didn’t just open the door to let him slither out on his own. Well, that wasn’t an option because the door was locked. Of course it was. This story wouldn’t be nearly so interesting if it were unlocked.

Ultimately, someone found someone else who had a door key while a guy from the kitchen came to assist.

However, all this transpired after Mr. Snake followed me into the restroom. Yep. It squeezed under that door too. Fortunately, it more or less looked around for just a few seconds and slithered back out the door. Evidently, even he knew that he didn’t belong in the ladies room.

Once the door was unlocked, kitchen guy picked him up by the tail and helped him out the door.

No one there seemed to know what kind of snake it was but a friend asked his snake expert friends and they all agree it is a Gopher snake which is not poisonous .

So we had two adventures for the price of one! And as Johnna pointed out, at least I got a story out of it.

When it was all said and done, Johnna ended up with a tall glass of something bubbly and caffeinated. On the other hand, I sat down and ate a giant chocolate chip cookie and lost my ability to blink for about five minutes.

Clearly, life is short and it is meant to be lived with enthusiasm. Take the hike, shriek like a little girl, eat the cookie and hope there’s not a snake in your path.

Mesa Verde National Park

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The thing I looked forward to the least on my western adventure is the thing I enjoyed the most.

Scratch that. I didn’t enjoy it so much as I am proud that I did it.

Mesa Verde is home to some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings in this country. In fact, it is an UNESCO World Heritage site.

Located in Southwest Colorado, visitors can roam more than 50,000 acres to find important archeological sites and photo worthy vistas. However, if you wish to have an intimate view of the actual cliff dwellings, you have to participate in a ranger led tour.

There are three of these tours. The catch is that you have to be able to a navigate worn stone steps AND climb some ladders.

For one of these tours you must be able to climb 20 foot ladders and the other has 32 foot ladders. The one we chose uses four eight to ten foot ladders to help you in and out of the dwelling area. Did I mention that they’re wooden and resemble Flinstones ladders?

The word chose is rather strong and a bit misleading.

Let’s pause a moment to think about this. I am terrified of heights and absolutely despise ladders.

When I heard about the ladders, I was prepared to jump ship and simply view the cliff dwellings from an observation deck. But my friend quickly shut down that way of thinking. “It depends on what kind of vacation you want to have,” she said. “Do you want to stand and watch other people have fun or do you want to go in and have your own experience?”

That hardly seemed fair. (I giggle about this now).

But we went, we navigated the stone steps and climbed the ladders without any trouble. No need to be nervous at all!

Once in a while, I believe it is healthy to try something that scares you or that pushes your boundaries.

When it was all done and we had climbed out of the canyon, I was quite pleased that I had done it without hesitation, tears or an airlift to safety!

It’s the small victories that make life worthwhile.