Mesa Verde

We had chosen to stay inside Mesa Verde, so we were right there when we got up the next morning. We paid a short visit to the visitor's center and got tickets to take ranger-guided tours of the more prominent dwellings. I should probably give a short explanation of Mesa Verde before I keep going on. Mesa verde National Park features primarily the dwellings of ancestral Puebloans (those people who preceeded the modern day pueblo people). They lived and farmed on mesa tops for hundreds of years and eventually moved into these cliff dwellings, built on naturally occurring ledges just below the mesa tops. The reason for this move is unclear, though probably was for a variety of reasons. Most of the dwellings on top of the mesa are rubble by now, but the cliff dwellings are protected and therefore fairly preserved.

Balcony House was first, where there is the best preserved example of a balcony in one of these dwellings. It is also the most challenging, physical-wise, to get to. You have to walk down loads of stairs (created by the CCC in the 1930s, as with most of the accessibility routes to these dwellings) and up a ladder and then the dwelling itself has you on your hands and knees through a tunnel.

After lunch, we hit Spruce Tree House. This is about the only easily accessible dwelling, requiring nothing more than a short hike to get to it. The site is named such because apparently there was a very tall spruce tree going from the ledge up to the top of the mesa which the first explorers used to get down into the dwelling. It has a covered Kiva (ceremonial room) that you can go down into.

Lastly, we visited Cliff Palace, which is a very large dwelling, comprised of over 20 Kivas and smaller personal rooms as well as a large storage facility. Our ranger said that modern day anthropologists tend to think of it as a sort of ancient convention center … more a place that the people would gather than actually live day to day.

Once out of the blistering heat, we napped in our rooms and had a *wonderful* dinner at Metate and retired to our rooms. We left the next morning to drive home. We went by way of Ouray and Leadville, through Gunnison and Buena Vista. We even made a brief stop off at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, one of the newest national parks. The scenery was amazing.

Just before we got to Buena Vista, we stopped at a hotsprings pool. This was dissimilar to other hot springs I have visisted because you could actually go down to the river and sit in the hot spots in the river bed that mixed with the cold river water. A really neat experience. It was the perfect interlude to a long day in a hot car. Just wish I'd taken more photos!!

And then we were home! Full photographic experience here!