Southwest Day 15: Rest day in Mesa Verde

September 7, 2021. 0 miles.

Even though I had a rest day a couple days ago, I set up my reservations to have a rest day at Mesa Verde as well. I wasn’t interested in biking to see the cliff dwellings. Its something like 20 miles and several thousand feet of elevation change, with narrow roads. Not worth it. So I spent the day in the campground and hiking one of the trails that leave from the campground.

The camp store serves breakfast. The service was quite slow, but I got a halfway decent breakfast burrito. I then took a liesurely hike up the trail along the ridge above the campground.

All the larger trees were dead - looked like fire damage. After the initial climb, the trail went along the rocky edge of the hill (mesa?). It was sunny, but I went slowly. There were lots of neat trees, rocks, flowers, and views over the surrounding valleys. Also views of the road I wasn’t biking on (I don’t regret it - it looked steep).

I was ready to get out of the sun by the time I got back to the campground, so I hung out in the shade at the tables at the (closed) breakfast place. Not a terribly eventful day, but relaxing.

Tomorrow I have 40-something miles to get to Durango, and then I won’t actually be biking for a few days. Which is pretty weird relative to my past bike tours, but I suppose I get to make the rules.