Point Lookout and Petroglyph Trails

While we were in Cortez, Colorado, we were able to visit Mesa Verde National Park several times.  We saw many ruins there.  The ancient inhabitants were famers and hunters living on the beautiful mesa.  This post is two of our self guided hikes at Mesa Verde.  Point Lookout is a trail that takes you up to the iconic point of Mesa Verde, and Petroglyph Trail, you guessed it has petroglyphs along the way.
The iconic Mesa Verde front view point above the Visitor's Center.

Mesa Verde, we walked to the top point up there!

The trail was a steep switchback trail up to the top of the mesa then it flattened out as it went out to the point.  This was a nice shady section that wasn't too steep.

Before we reached the top of the mesa, we stopped and looked back to the parking area where we could just see Romeo the Ram below all by himself in the parking lot.

The trail became steeper here.

We are getting up there now, from here we could see the main road going back into the park area.

The views were magnificent.

 The vast valley below.

Gari carefully strikes a pose not too near the edge.

The view from the point!  The Visitor's Center is down there, but is too small to see here.  You can see the park road winding out toward the entrance although.

Zoomed in a bit, perhaps the Visitor's center is visible here (very near the center of the frame).

The Petroglyph Trail was a beautiful hike along a steep canyon.

Steve stops among the natural trail to soak in the beauty.

This section was a narrow path under a rock stack.

A tight squeeze between those rocks.

Interesting sandstone erosion was found along the canyon walls.

We were surprised by a small ruin at the halfway point.  You could see where the original inhabitants burned their fire by the black marks on the rock ceiling.

We came, we found, we saw the petroglyphs.

Not the most spectacular petroglyphs that we have seen, but these were precious because of the surprising lack of petroglyphs in the area.  The beauty along this hike was also astounding.

More rugged trail, which we thought was part of the natural beauty of this hike, led the way out of the canyon.

Back up on top of the mesa we saw this pointy rock overlook and had to get hero shots.  It was windy up there and Steve takes a wide firm stance on that narrow rock!  The reason that you didn't see Gari on this hike is because Steve's camera malfunctioned and he didn't bring home any pictures :(