So – the plus side of us not having electricity in the hotel last night is that we found a great cheap hotel room at the next city we were going to…cheaper for TWO nights than the other one was for one night SO we are sleeping here for two nights! That gives us extra time in the SW of Colorado. We had planned on visiting Mesa Verde National Park but with the extra time, we were able to fit in another activity.
We had been trying to go white water rafting since this trip started. The weather was too cold, and too rainy and the weight restrictions excluded Grace at a few places – so I honestly had kind of written it off. But after looking through brochures at the hotel, we found an outfit that offered family raft adventures for kids as young as 4 with the weight restriction low enough that Grace could go too!!
Everyone was just thrilled! I called to be sure that it was going to be mild enough for the littles and wild enough for the big kids – and as the company was called Mild to Wild – it seemed just about perfect. It was a trip through the Animas River in Durango CO…the rapids ranged from I to III – and they assured me it would be perfect for us all.
We rented wet suits initially for just the kids (as they had suggested it for the littles – the water had been snow from the top of the mountains just days before and was still a chilly 50 degrees) – and then the bigger kids thought it would be a good idea and then I chickened out and got one too!
We had THE BEST tour guide – he was hilarious AND he looked like Liam Hemsworth (Gail in the Hunger games!)
The trip was a riot – all the kids had fun and they even got to jump in and play in the water for a bit. One of the best activities of the entire trip!!
After that, we still had time for a trip through the park. This was a pretty amazing historical site. It is the preserved sites of the Native American peoples dating back 1500 years – from the initial pit homes (the first settlements as the peoples moved from hunter to gatherer), to pueblos as they advanced, to these absolutely amazing cliff side communities preserved from about 1300 AD.
I didn’t realize how well they were preserved – it was so interesting to see.
(Love G’s face – she was mad because Scott wouldn’t let her run around at the edge of the cliffs – she kills me! She was fine 1 minute later!)
We also got to see a jack rabbit and a great big buck right next to us on the road. The kids earned their junior ranger badges – and we headed back to our cool comfy bed filled air conditioned hotel room.
