Day 3, Saturday, June 20, 2026
Today we checked off our 15th National Park from the list, Mese Verde National Park. We actually considered it a bonus park because we didn’t add it to the itenirary until just a week ago. I’m so glad we did.
Mese Verde National Park is in southwest corner of Colorado. It is known for its Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. It was a beautiful drive through up and through the canyon. My personal favorite part was the view from the top of Park Point. It has the best panoramic views of the entire park. Of course, we all got a history lesson about cliff dwellings and ancient Puebloan culture. As usual, Logan could have stayed a few more hours reading every sign he could find about the area. Macy on the other hand describes places like this as “outdoor museums”, and she’s not a big museum fan.
We wrapped up our tour of Mesa Verde and left Cortez around noon to head toward our next destination, Moab, UT. The 2-hour drive from Cortez to Moab was beautiful. I know this was only a taste of what we are going to see over the next few days but the landscape is already breathtaking.
We spent the afternoon setting up camp, restocking groceries, making dinner, and then had a short walk through Downtown Moab. We’ll be based out of here for the next 3 days as we explore Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and the Moab area.
