When I was a kid my favorite sport was to take off across the wilderness for weeks at a time with nothing on me but what just happened to be in my pocket at that second when the urge to go struck me. After I had proven to myself that I could survive anywhere and after I grew older and wiser I decided that backpacking is even more fun.
Backpacking is a way of combining hiking and camping. You carry your supplies and equipment for all of your expected eating and sleeping needs. The gear will include food, water, and shelter. Backpacking allows you to penetrate deeper into remote areas to get entirely away from modern civilization. Because you are carrying your supplies, backpacking will reduce your speed. Less ground can be covered in one day but you see a thousand times more detail.
Backpacking trips are usually a weekend or sometimes longer. If it is longer, planned food and supply drops should be worked out in advance so you won’t be weighted down with a heavy backpack. In popular backpacking locations, hike-in camps are available. Sometimes a camp is no more than a clearing of level patches of ground. Some are more, with free hiking huts available for backpackers.
Let's start with the Mesa Verde National Park since it is my favorite. This is the only American National Park that protects man-made structures. All the others were set up to protect natural features. TThe park is specifically known for the “cliff dwellings” which were built by communities of people from around 600-1300 A.D. here are over 4,000 separate historic ruins. These cliff dwellings are some of the most preserved in the United States and offer a peek at the lives of the ancient Pueblo people. Many of them are large structures built under steep, overhanging cliffs and found in narrow canyons. No wonder you'll meet friendly people from all around the world here. No wonder they come in by the busload, and by car.
This Park is located in Southwestern Colorado, just 35 miles west of Durango. Mesa Verde is approached from US 160, which runs along the Montezuma Valley between Cortez and Mancos. Mesa Verde is Spanish for green table. You'll need to spend more than a day or two to thoroughly explore these ancient sites and beautiful landscape. The interactive exhibits are fascinating. Many of them offer talks by guides who are more than willing to answer questions and explain things in depth. The campsites are terrific and easily accessible. Again, it is a FRIENDLY place to be. I did see black bear there, and I don't mean signs of bear. Coyotes and other wild game are plentiful.
For thousands of years people wandered across the Mesa Verde, living a nomadic life like dedicated backpackers while hunting wild game and gathering sustenance from the earth. Fourteen centuries ago, a few chose to settle in Mesa Verde, Colorado, choosing to stay near their planted crops. Over the next seven centuries they built more permanent homes and villages, and participated in extensive trade networks across the Southwest. The people of Mesa Verde are remembered today particularly for the grace of their architecture and the beauty of their intricate black-on-white pottery. One of the woven ropes left behind by the original inhabitants was over a thousand feet long.
A short trail starting along the entrance road leads to Park Point, the highest peak in the area at 8,571 feet. There is a watch tower with uninterrupted 360 degree views, and visitors can enter to learn about the work of the fire prevention service. . Quite often there is a stream of tourist buses coming up the hills. Turnouts are plentiful for local little cars that can't make it all the way up in one gulp and these make perfect stopping off places for backpackers. The restrooms are really nice. The guides at Mesa Verde were knowledgeable and extremely courteous. The exhibits were really fabulous and well cared for.
The entire Park is a perfect backpacker's kind of clean. The views alone are worth the trip. It seemed like every curve revealed yet another boulder poised to smash down the mountain side. The roads are well-paved and the grade is a good slope.
The Coyote Village has three kivas and it is more intricate than Far View. You can get right down in and look around all you want to. The Moorefield Campground has 400 Day locations. Fifteen of them have water electric and drop stations to help you keep the place clean.
The Grand Teton National Park is my second choice. This beautiful national park is found in western Wyoming. Set up as a national park in 1929, it boasts of nearly 200 miles of trails for hikers. These travel routes will provide you with outstanding mountain vistas and wildlife viewing opportunities.
You can spend a whole summer backpacking this area. The central feature of the park is the Teton Range. It is a mountain front forty miles long rising from the valley floor some 6,000 feet. It is said the Tetons were formed from earthquakes that occurred over the past 13 million years along a fault line. The Grand Teton is over two miles high, or 13,770 feet (4,198 m). And there are at least twelve pinnacles soaring over 12,000 feet (3,658 m). Seven morainal lakes adorn the base of the range, and more than 100 alpine lakes dot the backcountry.
Wildlife can be seen lingering near the park roads, so be alert -- for their safety and yours. Elk, moose, mule deer, bison and pronghorn, are commonly found in the park. You can see black bears roaming the forests and canyons, while grizzlies range throughout the more remote portions of the park. More than 300 species of birds can be observed, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons and trumpeter swans.
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