While I had enjoyed our hikes on the previous day, I was really looking forward to our one full day in Mesa Verde. I remember seeing a photo in an old Encyclopedia Britannica when I was little of these amazing looking cliff dwellings. This was of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the United States. From that day on, I'd always dreamed of visiting and on this morning we had a reservation with the first tour of Cliff Palace.
I got up early and then headed on down the road a bit to Far View Terrace. At the time of our visit, this was the only place open in the morning and for lunch. It's a total Food Court-ish set-up. Anyway, I got some (really bad) coffee and (even worse) pastries for breakfast. We should have stuck with the buts and beef jerky we packed!
After returning to our room we headed on out. The lack of Wifi was driving the Missus nuts, so I thought it would probably be best to hit the road. We got to the parking lot on Mesa Top Ruins Road; there was still quite a few open parking spaces. This is one of benefits of staying in the park, you can get to things fairly early.
We wandered around a bit, then headed on over to the meeting area for our tour and waited for our assigned ranger.
We then headed down to the staging area, where I got all excited when I saw the view…..
There it was, Cliff Palace, I was actually here! Our Ranger was just like all the rest, so knowledgeable, first going over the safety protocols, we'd be using ladders to ascend….five in total. There were a couple of folks that struggled a bit, but for us it was pretty easy.
It is said that Cliff Palace was the "social center" of the collective Mesa Verde communities and was occupied, based on tree ring dating from 1190 – 1260CE. We were told that there are 150 rooms in the dwelling and 23 Kivas in total.
The amount of kivas support the theory that Cliff Palace was the social center for the area.
We were told that the structures were made of sandstone, mortar, and wooden beams.
If you look up, you can see where you started from….
We loved visiting here. It was something I had on my "bucket list" since "small kid time".
Once we were done, we headed back up Mesa Top Ruins Road, then took a right and parked near Soda Canyon Overlook Trail. The trail was quite easy with some nice viewpoints.
And an especially great view of Balcony House.
Once back at the car, the Missus was itching to do some "real hiking", so we headed on over to where Spruce Tree Terrace is located and parked. Here we broke out the nuts and beef jerky we packed and had lunch.
We then ambled over to the Spruce Treehouse Trail where there are two other trails; the Petroglyph Point and the Spruce Canyon trails.
Petroglyph Point was the more interesting of the two and also the more strenuous. There were several tight squeezes, a couple of drops and some variations in terrain as well. The Missus was loving it.
There are some nice views along the way.
And truth be told, I was actually enjoying this trail. All the changes in terrain and views kept me visually stimulated.
As for the petroglyphs? Well, don't blink or else you'll miss it. It's along one small fenced off area.
From here it was a hike uphill where we ended up back near the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum.
We took a short breather, then headed back down and took the Spruce Canyon Trail.
I thought this trail was easier than Petroglyph Point, but also less interesting. It was quite peaceful as we did not see another soul during our hike.
Again we ventured into a canyon, then did the hike uphill and ended up in a back parking lot? We eventually found our way back to the Spruce Tree Terrace and our vehicle.
At this point, I figured that the Missus's hiking requests for the day had been paid in full. It was time to head on back to the Far View Lodge to relax for a bit.
When the subject of dinner came up; well, I didn't make reservations for the Metate Room on this evening. Instead, I noticed that the bar on the second floor of the Lodge served the salads we had enjoyed the night before along with simpler items. This sounded like a better alternative to us, so we headed on over. The place was much more casual and the service was much better.
And the salads came out quickly and were even better than the day before!
I really liked the combination of the Ancient Grain mix with the milky-salty Parmesan and Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette ($10.75).
Though they were still out of pistachios for the Strawberry & Pistachio ($14) salad.
While they didn't have any entrees on the menu, there was a collection of sandwiches and burgers available. The Missus and I decided to split the Short Rib Grilled Cheese ($13.50).
While the SYSCO crinkle cut fries weren't fried very well and quite soggy, the sandwich was not bad. The bread could have been toasted a bit more, but I liked the fact that they used Parmesan Texas Toast, which had a nice salty-buttery-milkiness. The short ribs were tender and beefy, loved the caramelized onions, and the cheese, which was a Boursin was herbaceous and nice and gooey. This was nice to share.
We found that prices in Mesa Verde where a lot cheaper than in other National Parks.
All in all, we enjoyed eating here than in the more fancy Metate Room.
Far View Lounge (In the Far View Lodge)
Mile Marker 15
Mesa Verde National Park, CO 81330
We had enjoyed visiting Mesa Verde, but I could tell that the Missus was ready to move on. It was time to head on out!
Stay Tuned!
And then we took the long and winding drive down to Wetherill Mesa and easily found parking in the lot.
You can pretty much linger as long as you want. 
I set about reheating the broth and moving the noodles and proteins to a proper bowl. One thing I noticed was that the broth really didn’t have that wonderful lemongrass-beefy fragrance of typical bun bo hue broth. Though I was prepared for the lack of banana blossom and such this time.
Well, that decent bowl of 
The noodles were the same as the NRM. The duck was much better this time around; you can tell by the color, there as much more five spice flavor and the meat, while on the tough side had taste. The skin was still a bit rubbery for my taste, but the fat had been rendered nicely. This was a definite improvement.
I ended up ordering The "O", like I did on my previous visit. It's now $7, a buck more than on my last visit, which ain't too bad considering I've seen banh mi approaching nine bucks these days.
The acidity of the tomato and the mild spice from the jalapeno, along with the creamy Russian Dressing supported the wonderful "meat in tubular form" that had been seared nicely. The bun was nice and fluffy.
I initially thought the beef was cut a bit too large, but it was very tender. The "garlic cloud" added some decent savoriness, but would have loved a bit more briney-citrusy tones to cut thru the richness. Still, this was a pretty good version.
Those yellow dots were an egg yolk emulsion…I would have preferred a drippy egg yolk as the emulsion really didn't add much to the dish, the horseradish was also strangely mild in flavor. The celery leaves did add a nice boost of palate restoring flavor. Perhaps if they chopped it a bit smaller you could get more than three bites.
I'd gladly return here.
For some reason; perhaps we're missing good Mexican food, the tortillas seemed even better than before….such wonderful maize flavor! And perfect for dunking or enfolding around the luscious, rich, and tender beef head. The soup was quite rich and viscous, had a nice "zing" of heat, and a squeeze of lime just took the edge off the richness.
This was a nice start to our stay on the Big Island. And the Missus was to even get Her "Suisan fix" over the following days as well.
