Mesa Verde National Park

We dedicated one day to tour this park.  Dog's are not allowed on any trails so Buddy was left to protect our motorhome.  We stopped at the highest point of the park and walked up a path to a fire tower which is used to detect forest fires in the whole area.  You can see 4 states from this point.  This park is located near 4 corners where four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and

Colorado) adjoin.  It was unstaffed at the time we visited it.  We took a free shuttle which dropped us off at trail heads to visit cliff dwellings and pit houses that the local Indian's built for shelter.  The Park Service has built aluminum structures surrounding the pit houses to protect them from the winter climate and animals.  We took the self guided tour through the pit houses as most passengers on the shuttle were on a paid tour of the cliff dwellings with a ranger.  We could have walked to one of the cliff dwellings at the end of the day, but we were tired from all the walking and it was quite hot, in the 90"s.