Mesa Verde National Park

Day 30
​Cortez CO

Wal-docking: The act of sleeping overnight at a Wal-Mart parking lot in an rv, bus, van or car.

We rolled into Cortez late the night before and needed to find home with little work. Wal-Mart is usually a pretty solid bet for some free parking. There are exceptions to the rule. Some cities make it illegal to overnight park in any store parking lot. This can be due to a multitude of reasons. 

1. Cities don't want your crappy RV cluttering up there pretty town
2. Cities site instances of higher crime rates due to an advantageous situation for thugs
3. RV parks and campgrounds donate money to political members who run for office and they make it illegal (yes this really happens. They site reasons number 1 & 2) 

Turns out Cortez Colorado isn't one of these places and we are glad for it. We even decided to be a little greedy and let Penny sit for the rest of the day while we headed out to see Mesa Verde National Park. We bought our tour tickets for 1530 in the afternoon and had some time to kill before seeing the grounds. Time to take care of some mundane chores like laundry and grocery shopping.

Now it's time for the awesomeness that is Mesa Verde. For those of you not in the know it was the first world heritage cultural site. It's a place where the Pueblo indians built their homes inside of cliff alcoves. This was all in the 1200-1300 year range. Drought came and struck the valley hard. Nearly 25 years of dry weather forced the natives from their homes and they migrated south. The structures are still there today, and we get to walk right through them. 

What an awesome experience. It's time to cap the day off with some more glorious Waldocking courtesy of you guessed it- Walmart.