Mesa Verde National Park, Four Corners, and Hell’s Revenge 4×4 Trail

After our day in Capitol Reef National Park yesterday, we got up early today in our cabins in little Bluff, UT, and departed for the 2-plus-hour drive to Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. On the way, we would also stop at Four Corners National Monument, which would also be my first time in New Mexico. Then, we’ve have a less than 3-hour drive back to Utah to finish up our Moab trip with a guided sunset side-by-side off-road tour on the renowned Hell’s Revenge 4×4 Trail led by Moab Cowboy.

Four Corners National Monument

As a kid, I’d remembered hearing about people going to Four Corners, where they could kneel on all fours and simultaneously be in four states: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. So, I was always kind of intrigued by this concept. When we arrived at the gate, however, it was different than what I was expecting. In fact, it was more or less a tourist trap. But we paid the fees and entered the monument area. It was a little anticlimactic, but also a little bit cool.

Four Corners to Mesa Verde National Park is about a 1.5-hour drive, so we got back on the road and headed east for Colorado.

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park is home to the preserved history of the Ancestral Pueblo people who built thriving cliff-dwelling communities for over 700 years on the mesas and in the cliffs of Mesa Verde.

Because we had to get back to Moab by a certain time to depart on our side-by-side tour, we weren’t able to spend a ton of time in Mesa Verde, but we felt like we got to check out some of the highlights.

For the first 600 years, before they built their dwellings into the sides of the cliffs, the Ancestral Pueblo people constructed pithouses on the mesa top. These first permanent homes were designed to be partially underground, so they were cool in the summer and warm in winter.

Remnants of a preserved Ancestral Pueblo “pithouse” at Mesa Verde National Park.

You have to kind of use your imagination when looking at the pithouse remnants, but from the National Park Service website:

A family pithouse included a central fire hearth used for cooking, light, and warmth. It was protected by a deflector which reduced air drafts across the fire and onto people sitting, working, or sleeping on mats nearby. It also allowed smoke to rise straight up through the roof vent. Wing walls defined living spaces and may have offered options for privacy. Behind the wing walls were grinding stones, where women spent hours grinding corn into cornmeal, the basis of family meals. Baskets, pottery jars, and bowls held food such as shelled corn, wild fruit, seeds and berries, or stored water. Items such as burden baskets, cradleboards, and capes of twisted yucca fiber wrapped with rabbit fur or turkey feathers hung from the roof or main posts.

Over time, the Ancestral Pueblo people began constructing above-ground buildings. By then, families lived in homes that included several rooms. The rooms shared walls with each other, much like apartments do today. The earliest above-ground buildings were made of wooden posts, branches, and brush covered with mud. Several generations later, builders began to use rough stone blocks instead of just wood and mud. They placed the blocks together using a mortar made of clay. This created a strong, stone-masonry wall.

Checking out Sun Temple. Based on its features and what was found (or not) by archeologists at the site, it was believed to be a ceremonial site.

Overlooking part of the Sun Temple structure. (Modern concrete covers the top of the walls to prevent moisture from going into the rubble placed between the walls.)

After generations, the Ancestral Pueblo people evolved to constructing their impressive cliff dwellings, many with multiple rooms, levels, and buildings.

Square Tower House is one of Mesa Verde’s most impressive cliff dwellings.

Square Tower House is the tallest standing structure in Mesa Verde, an intact kiva roof, including original plaster and paint.

Only about a dozen cliff dwellings contain 40 or more rooms, including Oak Tree House.
Oak Tree House is one of the larger cliff dwellings on Mesa Verde.

Cliff Palace is the largest known cliff dwelling in North America. Built between 1190 and 1280 CE, Cliff Palace was once home to over 100 people and consisted of at least 150 rooms.

Spruce Tree House, containing about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (ceremonial chambers) is the third largest cliff dwelling. It was constructed between about 1211 and 1278 CE, built into a natural alcove measuring 216 ft at greatest width and 89 ft at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people.

While “touring” Mesa Verde, we bumped into a shirtless, middle-aged guy on his mountain bike. Because my introvert husband struck up a conversation him, we learned he was coincidentally from Minnesota but had moved to southwestern Colorado a few years ago. We chatted with him for several minutes and he shared his love for Mesa Verde and the area, generally. He was a bit of a character.

Hell’s Revenge 4×4 Trail

We got back out on the road and headed northwest back to Moab. In less than 3 hours on the road, we arrived and decided it would be ideal to grab some lunch before heading out on our 4×4 sunset tour, so we stopped at The Spoke in downtown Moab and enjoyed lunch outdoors.

The gathering spot for Moab Cowboy tours was nearby and it was just about time for us to check in, so we made our way to their little kiosk and Beverly gave us the low-down on the rules and regulations and how not to die on the tour.

Side-by-sides corralled up for the sunset tour.

Then our tour group was off, headed for the slickrock 4×4 adventure course above Moab.

On the left is a rock formation called Lion’s Back, which is on private property and now closed to the public, but it used to be a well-known 4×4 obstacle.

Up we go…

It’s very funny to see actual road signs along this very much not a road.

Hell’s Revenge is a very busy destination for not only tour groups with side-by-sides and Jeeps or other off-road equipped vehicles, but enthusiasts also come from all over the country and beyond for the challenging terrain.

After the initial “warm-up,” our first stop on the tour was to see some dinosaur tracks. Though this was not new to us at this point in our Moab trip, it’s still pretty cool to see them.