Mesa Verde National Park

The Boggy Draw Trail Report for May 2 highlights favorable trail conditions for hiking and biking, with a focus on spring weather, upcoming events, and recent trail updates. Keep an eye on the forecast for your weekend adventures!

Local residents turned out Friday morning in different locations around Montezuma County to show support for public lands.

The Montezuma-Cortez School District drew enthusiastic accolades last week from the director of accountability pathways for the Colorado Department of Education. And work on an overlook to the Cliff Palace site will obstruct a trail and thus prevent Mesa Verde National Park from holding a luminaria-lighting event this winter.

On Saturday morning, Mesa Verde National Park hosted viewing events for the public during the annular solar eclipse. Hundreds of visitors poured into the park in the early morning hours to secure a spot to see this extraterrestrial event. NASA scientists and park rangers were nearby to answer questions. Tim Livengood is an assistant research scientist at NASA. He says there’s an important reason the crowd is here at Mesa Verde to watch the eclipse, as opposed to a different location in the Four Corners. And this week, county clerk and recorders will begin mailing ballots to all registered voters in Colorado in preparation for the November 7 election.

A rare solar eclipse dimmed the skies above Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park this weekend. NASA scientists and park rangers were on hand during this celestial event as a resource for the public.

This weekend, Colorado’s Department of Transportation says it expects towns and public lands in southwest Colorado to be inundated with visitors coming to see the solar eclipse. The eclipse will be visible in the U.S. early on Saturday along a path starting in Oregon and eventually passing over Mesa Verde National Park, and the Four Corners region. Lisa Schwantes, a regional communications manager for C-DOT, says that hotels in the area have been booked for months, and that Mesa Verde itself expects to see tens of thousands of visitors for this celestial event. Schwantes says it’s also important that people driving on highways this Saturday don’t pull over to the side of the road to view the eclipse, and instead find a designated area. And a grassroots organization in Arizona is pushing to remove the state's right-to-work statute in an attempt to strengthen unionization.

Montezuma Land Conservancy, or MLC, announced the conservation of two new parcels of land in Montezuma County on Monday, including one bordering Mesa Verde National Park. The other parcel is located near the Boggy Draw trail system. MLC is a nonprofit trust that works to protect land in southwest Colorado for its wildlife habitat, agricultural potential or public trails. Travis Custer, executive director of MLC, says that the addition of the conserved private land near Mesa Verde to an already existing public lands corridor in the area means more habitat protection for mule deer and certain species of birds listed on the state’s threatened and endangered list. And Colorado state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and their caucuses have more time to respond to alleged violations of open meeting laws.

Take in the sounds of Mesa Verde National Park with a performance by a Pueblo dance group and a tour of the largest cliff dwelling in North America, Cliff Palace.

This summer, Mesa Verde National Park will embark on a mission to bolster the health and resilience of the Mancos River. The park will start implementing restoration efforts in the stretch of the river south of the Mancos Valley. And a bill that would expand child labor protections cleared its vote in the state House of Representatives Friday.

A new grant is expected to help tie up the deal to protect key parcels of land close to Mesa Verde National Park, according to the Public News Service. And January measurements show snowpack is above average for the Colorado River basin for this time of year.