We’re trying to squeeze in as many trips with the girls as we can before they’re really too grown up to vacation with us. Traveling during the pandemic has been… interesting. We’ve been camping/RV-ing for quite a few years now, and this year, it seems like EVERYONE is getting in on the fun. Campgrounds are more crowded than ever. I’m glad more people are getting out into nature, but I’m also not loving the new crowded conditions.

Earlier in the summer, camping trips we pre-booked at National Forest campgrounds would get cancelled at the last minute, because (understandably) National Forest campgrounds were still closed by mandate. Eventually, we managed to book something that stuck, though, and we spent a week in the southwestern part of Colorado, so we figured we’d take the girls to see Mesa Verde. Because: if you’re close enough to see it, YOU SHOULD GO SEE IT.

The park itself was mostly closed, due to COVID. They weren’t running any tours of the cliff dwellings, and the bookstore/gift shop was only open a few hours a day, and even still, they closed it every couple hours to clean it. Then, they’d reopen but only allow 10 people in at a time. We managed to get in there for a short perusal of the books, though. Because we can’t SKIP A TRIP TO A BOOKSTORE. Ever. We’re just built that way.

After purchasing a few items, we drove through a part of the park that leads to the Cliff Palace and some other notable Anasazi sites. My husband and I visited this park 20-something years ago and did the tours and loved it. This time, we were only allowed to drive up to certain areas and look. We wore masks whenever we came across groups of other people driving through. There were a fair amount, but nothing too crazy. It was easy to keep to ourselves for the most part. I told the girls they really should come back someday and take the tours. I hope they do.

In the meantime, this was a close as we could get:

It was still worth it, though.

And camping with the girls is always so good. Every time we plan something, we’re sure this time they’ll say no when we ask them if they want to go. But they still say yes. Every time. We load up a camper, and head out to spend our days driving to places like this:

and then spend our evenings sitting around a fire roasting marshmallows and having conversations that none of us can ever seem to remember, that aren’t ever really full of important life-changing topics, but somehow seem to resonate the most.