Day 5–12
Cave City, KY → Mancos, CO · June 1 – 8, 2026
The warm-up is over. This was the leg where the trip stopped being a string of roadside oddities and started being the trip — two long, flat hauls across Missouri and Kansas, the ground finally tilting up into Colorado, and the first real payoff of the loop waiting at the end of it: the ancient cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde. A few quirky stops, a reset day I badly needed, a head cold sneaking up on me, and my first nights apart from the pups.
I'd had this one circled to break up the haul out of Kentucky with a little history. Pulled up and… closed. That's the road for you — you don't get every stop you plan, and you make your peace with the ones that don't happen. Kept the nose pointed west.
Tucked in for the night at 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters — a clean, easy overnight right on the water after a long day of windshield time.
Sunset caught in the van window at 370 Lakeside — the quiet kind of payoff after a long day of windshield time.
A pure miles day. Missouri rolls into Kansas and the world goes wide and flat and golden, and you just settle in and let the highway do its thing.
Pulled into Salina Campground for the night. I'll be honest — not my favorite, not the worst. A perfectly fine place to park, sleep, and roll out in the morning, and sometimes that's all a stop needs to be.
Totally worth the stop. It's tiny — only five acres — but the rock formations are really cool, big wind-carved caps sitting out on the prairie. It made the perfect early-morning stretch: I walked Kaia every trail they had to get some of that energy out before another long day in the van.
The wind-carved 'mushrooms' themselves — sandstone caps balanced out on the open prairie.
An interesting one. The giant egg is the headline, but what actually caught me was the Opera House — I did not expect to find something like that in a town this small. And the steampunk chicken out front was very cool.
The steampunk chicken out front in Wilson — welded from old gears and a Singer sewing machine, and honestly cooler than the famous egg.
I'll keep it simple: fine if it's on your way, not worth bending the route for. If it costs you more than ten minutes, skip it.
Crossed into Colorado and parked at Haggard's RV Campground in Pueblo West. Got laundry knocked out, and they had a really nice big dog park that Kaia loved. (Also my prime suspect for where the ticks came from — solo-dog-travel keeps you humble.)
Super touristy — honestly more action park than scenic overlook. Worth a look if you're passing, but go in knowing what it is.
The highest point of the whole trip, and a worth-it stop. Really nice gift shop at the top, and I took Kaia on a short hike up toward the summit and came away with some good pictures.
Proof we topped out: 11,312 ft, right on the Continental Divide.
Yellow salsify near the pass — a roadside wildflower I'd have driven right past if I weren't out walking.
Made it as far as the visitor center, but they stop all traffic up to the top at 3:15 and I missed the window. Filing it under "maybe another day" — I might swing back and actually get up there.
Rolled into Mesa Verde RV Resort in Mancos — home base for four nights while I tackled the main event.
Not every day on a ten-week loop is a postcard, and this one was pure housekeeping — and I needed it. I caught up on a real backlog of work, ran a couple loads of laundry, and gave the van a proper deep clean, floor to cabinets. The kind of unglamorous reset day that quietly makes the next stretch of road actually work. By evening the rig was tidy, the inbox was calm, and I was ready for the cliff dwellings.
The whole reason for this southwest swing: up into the ancient cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde — national park #17. I booked the 11am Balcony House tour, and my guide, Satchel, made it — you could tell he genuinely appreciated the history and the people who built this place, and that kind of care turns a tour into something you actually remember. It was a long one: dropped the pups at The Dog Ranch first thing and didn't get back to the van until around 4.
A mariposa lily tucked into the dry ground at Mesa Verde — something delicate in a place that's anything but.
Real-talk for the journal: this was my first night without the dogs, and I'm missing them more than I expected — and I think I'm starting to come down with something on top of it.
Back into the park for the 10:30 Long House tour — bigger and more open than Balcony House, and a perfect bookend to the day before. Picked the pups up that evening, and the van felt right again the second they piled back in.
Looking out from inside Long House — standing right where people lived in the cliff face.
Long House's ladders and stonework — bigger and more open than Balcony House the day before.