Compare Hiking in Mesa Verde, Black Canyon and Great Sand Dunes National Parks by Road Scholar

Day 1

Meals: Dinner

Accommodation: Best Western Durango Inn and Suites

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Activity note: Hotel check-in available from 3:00 p.m.

Afternoon: Program Registration. After you have your room assignment, join us at the Road Scholar table in the lobby to register with the program staff and get your welcome packet containing the up-to-date schedule that reflects any changes, other important information, and to confirm the time and location of the Orientation session. If you arrive late, please ask for your packet when you check in. Orientation. 5:00 p.m. The Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. Periods in the schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Dinner: At a local restaurant, we will have plenty of choices to order plated meals from the menu, with soft drinks, coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: At leisure. Continue getting to know your fellow Road Scholars, settle in, and get a good night’s rest for the day ahead.

Day 2

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodation: Best Western Durango Inn and Suites

Hike Mesa Verde National Park

Activity note: Driving approximately 40 miles one way; about 1 hour each way. Walking up to 4 miles throughout the day; about 3 hours total; hard surface trails, some rocky and sandy trails; several short ladders for access into ruins.

Breakfast: At the hotel, we’ll have a hotel buffet featuring a variety of hot and cold items, plus milk, juice, coffee, tea, water.

Morning: Riding by van, we will make our way to Mesa Verde National Park and World Heritage Site. With our instructor and park rangers, we will bring history to life and explore these ancient North American cliff dwellings. As we hike with park rangers through the cliff dwellings, we’ll learn about the people who once lived here before setting out on self-led walks of surface ruins. In doing so, we will discover some of the rich and amazing history of the ancient Puebloans with a focus on architecture and culture.

Lunch: During our hike, we’ll have boxed lunches including a pre-selected sandwich, chips, fruit, cookie, and bottled water.

Afternoon: Our exploration of Mesa Verde will continue with time for self-led visits to the museum and Visitor Center. At the end of the afternoon, we will reconvene and return to Durango.

Dinner: This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like in Durango. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.

Evening: At leisure. You may wish to explore historic downtown Durango. Be sure to prepare for check-out and transfer in the morning.

Day 3

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Red Arrow Inn and Suites

Ute Tribal Park

Activity note: Driving approximately 50 miles to Tribal Park, about 1 hour; then approximately 135 miles to Montrose, about 2.5 hours, with stops. Hiking up to 5 miles; about 3 hours on primitive unpaved, rocky trails, climb 5 ladders for entry and exit of prehistoric sites.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: Once checked out of the hotel, we will travel to the Ute Tribal Park Headquarters to meet members of local Ute tribes, who will be our expert leaders for the day. They will then accompany us to Ute Tribal Park, which is adjacent to Mesa Verde, contains numerous ancient ruins, and is only accessible by special arrangement and accompaniment by a local escort. Our experts’ interpretations will add an understanding of the ancient inhabitants as well as today's Ute life and culture. During our time here, we will visit surface ruins and rock art sites, then hike into Lion Canyon where we will climb ladders to access the magnificent ruins.

Lunch: Along the trail, we’ll have our boxed lunches.

Afternoon: We’ll then complete the morning's visit and hikes in Ute Tribal Park’s Lion Canyon before continuing our transfer to Montrose.

Dinner: At a local restaurant, we will have plenty of choices to order plated meals from the menu, with soft drinks, coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: Upon arrival at the hotel, we’ll check in and get settled. The remainder of the evening will be at leisure.

Day 4

Meals: Breakfast and  Lunch

Accommodation: Red Arrow Inn and Suites

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Activity note: Driving approximately 13 miles one way; about 1 hour roundtrip. Walking/hiking approximately 6 miles total throughout the day; about 4 hours; uneven, rocky trails.

Breakfast: At the hotel, we’ll have a buffet featuring a variety of hot and cold items to choose from, plus milk, juice, coffee, tea, water.

Morning: Aboard our vans, we’ll travel to one of the nation’s newer national parks, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, established in 1999. Once we arrive, we will take several hikes along the South Rim of the canyon from a 1-mile loop to a 3-mile walk point to point. Embracing 20,766 acres, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park contains 12 miles of the deepest portion of the Gunnison Gorge. The Gunnison River has cut some of earth’s oldest base rocks to a depth of 2,700 feet. The top of the canyon narrows to about 1,100 feet, but down by the river the canyon narrows in places to about 40 feet. As we enjoy our visit, we’ll marvel at this natural wonder, a truly amazing sight.

Lunch: Along the trail, we’ll have boxed lunches.

Afternoon: We’ll complete our hikes and return by vans to Montrose in the mid-afternoon. On the way, we’ll make a stop at the Visitor Center for a rest stop and self-led visit to the exhibits and film. For those who wish, we will take a van to the Ute History Museum led by our expert staff and museum docents.

Dinner: This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like in downtown Montrose. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.

Evening: At leisure. Be sure to prepare for check-out and transfer in the morning.

Day 5

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Alamosa

Black Canyon, Curecanti Creek Trail Hike

Activity note: Driving approximately 160 miles; about 4 hours total; 1 hour in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, with stops. Hiking approximately 4 miles roundtrip; about 3 hours; unpaved, rocky trails elevation change of 900 feet.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: After checking out of the hotel, we’ll begin our transfer from Montrose to Alamosa, making a stop on the way for a hike on the Curecanti Creek Trail at Pioneer Point, which is within the Black Canyon and the Curecanti National Recreation Area. Descending from the high rim of the Upper Black Canyon of the Gunnison where scrub oak and sage dot the landscape, the trail then parallels Curecanti Creek as it makes its way toward Morrow Point Reservoir. Morrow Point Reservoir is at the end of the 2-mile descent into the canyon. In addition, the Curecanti Needle, a 700-foot spire, towers above at the trail's end. The Creek Trail is punctuated by a change in ecosystems as one descends into the canyon. Oak and sage on the rim gives way to conifers and water-loving plants such as Bog Birch and Rocky Mountain Maple. Ancient rock ranging in age from 1 billion to 1.8 billion years old makes up the trail and walls of the canyon. These are the oldest rocks or “basement” rocks found in Colorado, making up a formation called the Black Canyon Formation.

Lunch: Along the trail, we’ll have boxed lunches.

Afternoon: Upon completing our hike, we’ll continue our drive to Alamosa by way of the Scenic Highway over Cochetopa Pass and into the San Luis Valley. Along the way, we’ll see the amazingly rugged peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Range, beacons for early Spanish explorers.

Dinner: At a local restaurant, we will have plenty of choices to order plated meals from the menu, soft drinks, coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: At leisure.

Day 6

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Accommodation: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Alamosa

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve

Activity note: Driving approximately 34 miles; about 1.5 hours roundtrip. Hiking approximately 6 miles total; about 4 hours; loose and packed sandy terrain on the dunes.

Breakfast: At the hotel, we’ll have a buffet featuring a variety of hot and cold items to choose from, plus milk, juice, coffee, tea, water.

Morning: Setting out from the hotel via vans, we’ll spend the day hiking at the 38,000-acre Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Starting at the Visitor Center, we’ll gain an understanding of the park through exhibits and film. Then, we will hike out onto the dunes and explore this unique geographic phenomenon led by our expert staff geologist. Too heavy to rise with the winds that carry it north-eastward across the flat, semiarid floor of the San Luis Valley, sand settles at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Range. The deposits that have accumulated over 15,000 years have resulted in a 39-square-mile dune, making it the largest in North America.

Lunch: Along the trail, we’ll have boxed lunches.

Afternoon: We’ll continue our hike until returning the vans for transfer back to Alamosa in the mid-afternoon.

Dinner: This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like in downtown Alamosa. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.

Evening: At leisure. Be sure to prepare for check-out and transfer in the morning.

Day 7

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Best Western Durango Inn and Suites

Vallecito Creek Trail, Farewell Dinner

Activity note: Driving approximately 150 miles; about 3 hours total throughout the day, with stop for hike; riding approx. 2 hours in the morning and 1/2 hour in the afternoon. Hiking between 4 and 5 miles depending on group interest and time available; between 2 to 3 hours; rocky gravel trail; elevation change of roughly 400 feet.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet.

Morning: Once checked out of the hotel, we’ll begin our transfer by vans back to Durango with a stop en route in the nearby scenic area of Vallecito Creek where we will take a scenic hike in the Weminuche Wilderness. The hike begins in the bottom of a picturesque and steep canyon with ponderosa pine forest, aspen and conifers before climbing gradually north following Vallecito Creek. Views of waterfalls, cascades, and pools punctuate the hike and, depending on our turn-around point that will be decided by group interest and available time, we may cross up to three creeks while passing through meadows and aspen groves.

Lunch: Along the trail, we’ll have boxed lunches.

Afternoon: After completing our hike, we’ll finish our transfer to Durango for a mid-afternoon arrival at the hotel for check-in.

Dinner: At a local restaurant, we will order plated meals from the many choices on the menu, plus soft drinks, coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.

Evening: At leisure. Be sure to prepare for check-out and departures in the morning.

Day 8

Meals: Breakfast

Program Concludes

Activity note: Hotel check-out by 10:00 a.m.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet. This concludes our program.

Morning: If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!