Day 11 - Mesa Verde & Moab (14.10.2016)

Today, as mentioned, we wake up with a beautiful view over the plateau right in the National Park and enjoy a late start to the day with a coffee from the machine in the room.

Afterwards, we go to the Mesa Verde National Park Museum to visit the exhibition and get information about the best approach from the rangers.

At the museum, they recommend that we only drive the 10-mile long Mesa Verde Top Loop with our car for our further tour to Moab. Here, we would see the best things and also get the best photos.

So after a quick snack in the restaurant, we drive off and see some turkeys along the way. Then we arrive at the first viewpoint where you have an amazing view over a valley with steep walls on the sides. One stop further, we come to the Square Tower House and here we can only marvel at how the Native Americans built these buildings at this location and how they lived here.

After several more small stops at so-called Pit Houses, which were dug into the ground and then covered with a roof, we finally arrive at the viewpoint opposite Cliff Palace, the largest and best-preserved Cliff House.

After thoroughly exploring and photographing this part of the National Park, we head to our next stop in Moab at Arches National Park. The drive takes about 3 hours and we make good progress.

Just before Moab, we pass by Wilson Arch and also make a quick stop here to look at it and climb up a bit. We can stand below the arch and enjoy the view. We also take the opportunity to take some beautiful photos.

After that, we drive directly to our motel 'Archway Inn'. It's not a special motel, but it's clean and not a bad motel at all. We get a big room and can even have breakfast in the morning.

They also give us a recommendation for dinner. It's the 'SAX' restaurant. Here, for 14 dollars, you can eat as much as you want from the pizza, salad, and soup buffet. The offer is very cheap and the salads and pizzas are delicious. We also get to taste local beer, which is very good by American standards.