Along the way to the southwest corner of Colorado to see the annular eclipse at Mesa Verde, we catch glimpses of the beautiful mountains of Buena vista and Breckenridge under a clear sky.

We make a pit stop at the Great Sand Dunes national park and mountains of Mt. blanc. Running up the sand dune is so exhausting, but sliding down on a board borrowed from a nearby family is so fun! The sand squeaks as I press into it and shimmy down the steep dune.

The mountain pass is beautiful and overlooks lakes filled with migrating sandhill cranes. I spot several flying overhead. We stop in Durango for a delicious wood fired pizza, which I hadn’t had since the year before in Europe. Plus it is good to have leftovers to snack as we make our way through Mesa Verde.

We set up camp in a field of aspens, which is freezing at night but beautiful to wake up to in the morning.

The car winds its way up through the plateaus of mesa verde. We continue on to the highest point of the national park for the annular eclipse. The moon starts nibbling at the edge of the sun while we look out over Four Corners and Utah.

The sun turns into a Pac-Man shape. Several dozen people are gathered and add to the excitement, and a park ranger walks around answering questions. The birds fly around and the sky begins to darken. The crescent takes on a cheshire cat smile as the air gets cooler. I run back to the car and get my jacket as it is much colder. The crescent slowly turns into a beautiful glowing ring. It is very cool, like a ring of Soron from Lord of the Rings. I played “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash from my phone unironically.

Afterwards we drive around and see the ancient pueblo dwellings in the cliff side. The architecture is really neat. It is fun pulling over and seeing all the variations scattered around the canyon.

There is a nice museum in the middle of the park. There are some designs on the pottery that look just like the dinosaur tracks. It is fun to learn some of the geological and historical context of the site. The Ancestral Pueblo peoples have lots of creative innovations and beautiful pottery.

The cliff side palace steals the show. Dating back to the year 1300, it was occupied for 100 years. There is a large tower and some cylindrical buildings. A collapsed boulder is naturally incorporated into the architecture. The large circular, ceremonial rooms, called “kivas,” can be seen from above. The “windows” of the buildings also function as the doors. Remnants of plaster colored orange and red are painted over the ruins.

The ancestral pueblo peoples must have been fit! I can barely climb out at this latitude. Climbing out we grab handholds that have worn into the rock from the climbers going up and down. Luckily we get to use a ladder.

There are some fantastic mesa views that we stop by on the way out. We decide to take the scenic route back, driving through yellow, orange and red aspen forests. There are some gorgeous mountain ranges outside of Telluride. Lake Trout offers breathtaking views.

In Telluride, we take the gondola up the mountain to properly take in the view. On the way out we see a herd of elk, including some babies!