After hiking both the Point Lookout and Knife Edge Trails, we decided to head on down to the Wetherill Mesa area which is only open between certain months of the year. Along the way we stopped at the Park Point Overlook. There's a short paved trail to the highest point in Mesa Verde and the view is wonderful here.
This is where we saw the most people on this day.
The Park Point Fire Lookout stands at the highest point.
And it's still in use today. In fact, there's this interesting photo in the window of the lookout.
And then we took the long and winding drive down to Wetherill Mesa and easily found parking in the lot.
We decided to do the self-guided tour of the Step House. You basically go down a couple of switchbacks and then take a ladder down to the amazing dwellings! There is a Ranger on duty to answer questions and the area is only open when manned by a Ranger.
This dwelling was populated twice, the first set of inhabitants are called the Modified Basketmakers who settled here around 600 CE. The second set was during the Pueblo III period.
This was an amazing site!
You can tell the difference in the structures of the Basketmakers……
Versus the masonry structures of the Pueblo people.
You can pretty much linger as long as you want.
We decided to not do the Long House Tour since we'd be doing Cliff Palace the next day.
We had lunch in the parking lot. The Missus ate an entire mini-watermelon and we had a couple of terrible tamales from the motel.
We headed then back and then down toward Chapin Mesa. We decided to make a stop at the Far View Sites. This is a rather unique site as it sits at the top of a mesa rather than in an alcove.
Apparently, there were close to 50 villages in this half mile area between 900 and 1300AD.
While the sites, like the Far View House above, which is thought to be the center of the community or the Pipe Shrine House below are quite stunning. I'm guessing folks are expecting those dramatic alcove settlements, which is why we saw no one here, in spite of the easy access.
We then headed further down to Chapin Mesa and made a stop at Spruce Tree Terrace. While both the Chapin Archaeological Museum and Spruce Tree House are were closed the view was…..well, let me say it again, amazing!
We'd stop by again to do a couple of hikes here the following day.
By now, it was getting close to check-in time at our accommodations. We were staying in Mesa Verde at the Far View Lodge, pretty much the only non-camping hotel within Mesa Verde. Of course, after staying at a bunch of these places we knew what to expect; no fridge, definitely no microwave, they wanted to make their money off of you. And while we'd had our own experiences with what we call "National Park cuisine", there were limited options in Mesa Verde. Yet, I'd heard that the offerings at what was described as "Mesa Verde's fine dining restaurant" were pretty good. So I made reservations for this evening.
It's located in the same structure as the hotel check-in and gift shop.
After looking over the menu, we decided to stick with appetizers and salads. And after doing so much hiking, a nice salad sounded good! When we arrived the place was half full and yet the staff seemed to be in the weeds for our entire meal….which took over 2 1/2 hours!
We started off with the "Korean BBQ Chicken Wings". This was the first item out, it took an hour to get to our table.
A basic Cho-jang style sauce, overly sweet, the coating mushy, and worst of all, I think this was refry job since the flesh of the wings, while fully cooked, was cold!
The flavors on the Roasted Mushroom Flatbread wasn't too bad.
Decent earthy flavors, the arugula a nice foil for the mushrooms and boursin. But that crust was so doughy, like it hadn't been baked long enough.
And while we waited another 45 minutes for our salads, they would be the best items we had.
The Strawberry – Pistachio Salad was quite refreshing.
Though it had no pistachios wince they had run out, so they subbed sunflower seeds, which did just fine. The balsamic dressing added a sweet-acidity, and the greens were very fresh.
I really enjoyed the Ancient Grain Salad.
All the textures and nutty-earthiness of the Ancient Grain mix, cucumbers, sweet carrots, pickled red onions, and salty-savory parmesan cheese did well with the sun dried tomato dressing.
Service was really s-l-o-w, but when it comes down to it; this might be the best "National Park meal" we've had. And the view wasn't too shabby.
Metate Room
Mile Marker 15, 6262 Far View Mesa Verde National Park
Colorado 81330
And here's the sunset from our balcony…..
Which made it all worth while.