Jeff got a schedule where he would work seven days in a row, then get four days in a row off. Those four days fell (intentionally) on a weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday). We discussed if we wanted to go somewhere and, if so, where to go. We finally decided that, yes, let's go on a trip. I've been to Mesa Verde two or three times before, but Jeff had never been there, so we set our destination for Mesa Verde National Park.

We got on the internet and looked up the campground fees for Morefield Campground. Morefield Campground is the only campground located inside Mesa Verde and has 435 sites, flush toilets, showers, etc. The cost would be $19/night. Then we discovered that it is not yet open. It's scheduled opening date was Friday, April 23 - one week after our trip. (Apparently, though, it actually opened on the 20th, two days after we got back home.)

So we started looking for nearby campgrounds on the Colorado state map and the forest service map for the nearby San Juan National Forest. We discovered Mancos State Park, a small State Park very close to Mesa Verde (only 12 miles away) that had a campground. We got back on the internet and looked it up. Here we found that the state park fee is $3/day, and the campground fee is $12/night. Our 3 day/3 night stay here would be $15 per day/night instead of $19, a savings of $12 (hey, every little bit helps).

Preparations for our trip actually started a week before we left.