We entered the gift shop and looked around. I wanted to find a Mesa Verde screen saver for the computer, but, lo and behold, they didn't have anything like that. They had several screen saver packages, but nothing on Mesa Verde. We browsed around the store a little, then I went over to check out the t-shirts. I found one that I really liked. It pictured a cliff dwelling in the moonlight, with light shining out of it's windows. But they had it only in small, medium and extra-large sizes. I wear a size large these days. However, upon holding the shirt up to me, it appeared that the extra-large would work okay. I have a few other t-shirts that are oversized so I figured one more wouldn't hurt, and the picture was far too beautiful to pass up.

Jeff didn't see anything he wanted. Or, maybe he just wasn't planning on picking up any souveniers. For him, it was enough just for us to enjoy this trip together. While I was waiting to check-out, I saw some mugs on a shelf near the register. I held them up for Jeff to see and asked if he wanted them. He said yes, so I added two mugs to my purchase. One of them is black and has the same moonlight picture as the t-shirt. The other is white and has a picture of Cliff Palace on it. As I was paying for the items, the lady at the register made a comment about how beautiful it is to see Spruce Tree House lit up by luminarias at Christmas. Although neither the t-shirt nor the black mug identify the dwelling pictured, I assumed, by her comment, that the moonlight picture is of Spruce Tree House. Upon closer inspection of the picture, however, I believe it is of Cliff Palace.

Having purchased "our" souveniers, we returned to the vehicle and stashed them in there. We pulled out the camera and camcorder. A chilly wind was blowing so we put our jackets on. From here, we walked over to the starting point of the path leading down to Spruce Tree House. Now, with camera in hand, I got a snapshot of Spruce Tree House.

It was now about 12:45 pm. A short distance down the path was another trail branching off. This is Petroglyph Point Trail, and is a 2.4 mile hike, one way, to Petroglyph Point. Petroglyph Point offers some petroglyphs for viewing. Jeff was feeling a little winded, and we didn't feel like taking on an almost 5 mile walk, so we decided not to do it. We continued on down the path to Spruce Tree House.