Alex Thompson

Alex Thompson

Explore Balcony House

02/22/17

Walking and climbing through Ancient Pueblo ruins and learning about the history of the settlements is a must-do when visiting the park! Balcony House gives you a more intimate experience in the ruins as opposed to the other sites in Mesa Verde. One thing the description above does not mention is that a paid guided NPS tour is required for entry into Balcony House. The tickets are $5.00 and can be purchased at the Ranger Station at the entrance of the park. As someone who doesn't like doing "touristy" things or paid tours, this was well worth it.

5.0

Alex Thompson

Hike to Timber Lake

02/11/17

A buddy of mine and I got an NPS backcountry permit in July to camp at the snowbird campsite a couple hundred meters from Timber Lake. The hike up was beautiful - lush forest with many streams cutting through the path. A large landslide has taken out part of the trail so we had to hike up and over the steeper mountain side to avoid it. At the top, a huge alpine storm came through and dropped an inch of hail on us! The next morning we hiked up towards Mt. Ida and saw plenty of bear scat and some moose. During the day, Timber Lake was sunny and beautiful.

5.0