Trip rewind: Day three

Day three was shitty. Not because it was a bad day, but because the weather fucking SUCKED. It was gray and cold and kind of rainy. Day three was Mesa Verde National Park (which I would have gotten extra credit for had I gone last semester during my Colorado History class). When it was sunny, it was retardedly windy, and when it wasn't sunny and windy, it was all of the other bad things.

Inside the main visitor's center was this creepy thing:

If it's supposed to be anything besides terrifying, I'm not sure. I couldn't tell if it was a native American dressed up as a 30's industrial worker in New York, or a stoop kid, or a blind beggar with obviously awful fashion sense. I just couldn't tell.

We did the long, long loop, got out to take some pictures (that I just didn't care for at all), and look! Look, it's me! Hard at work!

More driving, more driving, and then came the entrance to the valley, which was almost like being in my own weather zone. I didn't personally want to go to the cliff dwellings, so I barreled ahead and decided on the petroglyph trail, assuming I'd do it on my own and we'd reconvene at the museum (which sucked, by the way. We had lunch there, I ordered fry bread, and it was intolerably greasy). Thank goodness my decision became THE decision of the day, because it was a three mile trail. MADE UP OF STAIRS. Stairs that hated me:

I didn't want to take three miles worth of pictures, so I only snapped a couple. But it was pretty gnarly throughout. However, the payoff was worth it:

Neat!!!! And the view from the petroglyphs site wasn't all that bad, either.

They way back to the museum was WAY fucking easier than the way to the site, to be fair. But t was on the very top of the mesa, and it was a bit arduous at times. The wind was clearly in charge, and demonstrated as much by nearly knocking me off of the edge (this is a terrifyingly true story). The path was delightful, however.

I forgot my thing of water in the car, so I was figuratively dying of thirst the entire time. I honestly didn't expect the hike to be that long, or that strenuous. My first tip off should have been the sign in/sign out book at the beginning of the trail. :/

The way out of Mesa Verde was interesting, because we got pulled over for pulling over. So, not really pulled over, just pulled behind and then lectured. Oops. But I did grab these at the exit of the park, and I like them:

I told my mom I wish I had been able to visit there on a clear, sunny day. She said that my pictures are more interesting, because the weather is kind of gross. So there's that.

This picture is not at all good, but it makes me laugh, because...well....here:

That's a bike. In a tree. It's clearly been there for awhile.

The evening of day three was spent peacefully at the hotel pool and hot tub, relaxing my poor, spent muscles and enjoying myself immensely.

That concludes the penultimate rewind! Stay tuned.