Has anyone gone to Mesa Verde in late October or early November? My son is 12 and my husband and I were hoping to see Cliff Palace at least. Anything else to do nearby?

Type DebitNM in the "Search the Forums" box above. She lives in the area and has posted a lot of useful information for Mesa Verde.

Lee Ann

Also, it's in Colorado and you have tagged your post "California."

If you head west, Canyonlands is not too far and Arches not far from there. There is also the railroad from Durango to Silverton. If you go south you might hit Bandelier and los Alamos and then on to Santa Fe.

What direction will you be coming from? That might change where you could explore.

Here I am!

If you get there before November 8th, you can see both Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House Dwellings [Spruce Tree is free, self guided and from 9-5; Cliff Palace is 9-4 hourly on the hour, tickets only ]. After the 8th, only Spruce Tree at 10 am , 1 pm and 3:30 pm.

We were just up there this past weekend and it was lovely. Not alot of people and we got to see a pottery demonstration given by Santa Clara Peublo.

What kind of things are you interested in doing besides Mesa Verde? Will you have a car? How much time to you have?

Deb

I strongly second the Durango/Silverton train ride, especially for a 12 year old - http://www.durangotrain.com/

If there were enough snow on the ground, this dinner/sleigh ride is a blast, but you'll be there too early.

http://www.buckslivery.com/sleigh.html

But, they do have a trail ride with dinner if that is of interest to you - http://www.buckslivery.com/dinner.html