Apologies for the lack of posts the last two weeks. We’ve been busy!!! Here’s a quick one to start getting you caught up with what we’ve been getting into…

We spent another night with our Wal-mart parking lot community and then we made our way a few miles down the road to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is a bit different than most other parks with the “National Park” designation. Mesa Verde offers unique and beautiful landscapes, but as an Archeological park and World Heritage Site, it serves to “preserve the works of man.”

Mesa Verde preserves the cliff dwelling structures of the Pueblo Indians. Many of the structures and artifacts in the park indicate the area was inhabited nearly 1,400 years ago before its residents mysteriously started to move away around 1200 A.D. Again to our misfortune, much of the park was closed off to guests for the season but many of the dwellings were visible from a short distance. We walked around for a few hours taking pictures and learning as much as we could about these fascinating peoples. Having seen much of the park by the late afternoon, it was obvious this was going to be a short stop for the Vanjoelina Crew.

From Mesa Verde, Colorado we drove a few hours toward our next destination, Arches National Park, which is just outside of Moab, Utah. We arrived in Moab a little after dark, treated ourselves to a classy Denny’s dinner and parked the van in a Motel 8 parking lot to spend the night. When morning rolled around, we realized the van smelled a bit ripe from not having showered in a few days. We searched for showers nearby and luckily found a hostel (The Lazy Lizard) that charged $3.00/shower. The bargain hunters that we are, it was a deal we could not pass up. Well worth the $$!

Moab, Utah is a unique little town located only a few miles from both Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and is an adventure seekers paradise. Driving through downtown Moab, it seemed as if every storefront offered an extreme experience such as skydiving, zip-lining, rock climbing, mountain biking, jeep tours, etc… essentially everything our mothers don’t want us doing. Moab is certainly the place to be if you are an adrenaline junkie. For more info or pictures of Moab, check out the city’s official tourism page at http://www.discovermoab.com

Stay tuned to read about our experience in Arches NP.