Mesa Verde

Since the historic Mesa Verde ruins were only an hour down the road from Durango, I took the boys to see the park while Diamond was off working to earn this whole little getaway.

It's hard to even comprehend the idea of something being 1,000 years old. When the Caboose asked "Where do they keep theirs cars?" or "How do they get to the store?" I realized I'm not the only one.
The big boys were mostly excited to climb all the ladders.
And loved climbing down into the ceremonial kiva.

We toured both Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace. I wanted to check out the Balcony House, but one of the park rangers said that would work only if the Caboose would stay RIGHT next to me. HA! Hardly! (Although, he really did do a good job of staying safely closeby.)
It is such a unique site to see something so very, very old in the US. So much of the history of this country is young, like the United States itself. It's cool to see something a little older.