Jeff was up before I was. But since I was awake when Jeff left the tent, I gradually worked my way out of my sleeping bag, got dressed, then crawled out of the tent. Since it was a little chilly in the morning, we both put on long sleeved shirts. As I was getting up, the park ranger came around the campground, checking out all the sites and doing some cleanup. It was now about 10:30. While I made a VERY quick run over to the outhouse, Jeff talked to the ranger. Then we dug out breakfast, which consisted of a bowl of cold cereal. As we ate, Jeff told me that, according to the ranger, we were the first ones to stay in the main campground this season. For some reason, everyone else went up to the west campground.

Having finished breakfast, we packed up the food and made one more run to the outhouse. We pulled out of the campsite about 11:00. Before leaving Mancos State Park, we stopped to take some still pictures in the morning sunlight that I didn't take the night before.

Then we left Mancos State Park

and drove the five miles back down to the town of Mancos.

Here, we headed west, continuing on highway 160 towards Cortez. The turnoff to Mesa Verde was only seven miles outside of Mancos.

About a mile in from highway 160, we reached the entrance gate.

The entrance fee is $10 and is good for seven days. After handing us a receipt and a few other pieces of paper, they sent us on our way up the winding road to the top of the mesa.