Day 22 Sunday, May 4th
Mesa Verde
Today the kids and I drove from Durango over to Mesa Verde National Park, about 36 miles to the west. At the Visitor's Center, we purchased tickets to 2 ranger guided tours of 1 hour each. The first was the Cliff Palace, the 2nd was the Balcony House. We proceeded then to drive thru the park to the sites, which was another 20 or so miles, taking about 45 minutes. It was definitely worth the time and effort to get there, but definitely remote.
Wow!
What a spectacular site this was.
Cliff Palace House
This is the view from above at the look out area. This is where we met the ranger who gave us the speech on site etiquette and safety instructions for descending and ascending the ladders.
80% of the cliff dwellings here are original, about 800 years old. The Ancestral Pueblo people came off the mesa tops to carve and build their homes here. The belief is that they did this when water became scarce on the mesa top, but more abundant in springs dripping from the back of the caves. They would carve niches out of the cliff face so they could continue to hunt and farm on the tops.
Talk about a dangerous morning commute.
(The ladder is the background is for the archaeologists)
The builders used basically "sticks and stones" to construct these multistory structures.
Adam really enjoyed talking with the ranger.
Look closely at the wooden beams. Can you see the little plugs that were removed? They used those to date the cliff dwellings.
The exterior and interior walls would have been covered with a "plaster" that would have decorated and painted.
The kiva is the round structure in the center. Usually had 6 pillars to hold the juniper tree branches to make the roof. 150 tree branches would have been needed to make 1 kiva. The whole helped to draw in fresh air for the fire.
They are monitoring the structures to ensure they remain stable on the cliffs. Due to the slope on which they were built, the fear is that the Cliff Palace will slide down the mountain.
We had to climb a ladder and traverse these narrow stone steps to enter and exit the site.
Look very closely to the rock in the very center. Do you see the small cuts into the rock? Those were how the cliff dwellers would have entered and exited their homes. Can you imagine that?
More ladders and steps.
Balcony House
Our next tour was extremely adventurous.
We climbed 3 long ladders; navigated a steep trail with some exposure on the cliff faces; and crawled through a narrow 12 foot long tunnel.
The view from Balcony House.
They had great views. The mountain peaks could be found in their pictographs on the walls.
Up we go!
Through a tight squeeze between the rocks.
Incredible!
The balcony may have given the small children a safe place to stay.
More hand and foot holds to climb.
Remember the kivas would have been covered with wooden roofs and plaster so they could walk on top of them, entering by way of ladder.
You can see the blackened walls where the fires have darkened them.
Peaking through the window into the next area.
Heading up and around into the next area.
The mountain peaks.
This is how we exited the Balcony House. I admit, I didn't take any pictures here. Too worried about getting myself up safely to stop and take a look around.
Once safely at the top, however, I did snap a few shots looking back down at those making their way up. Just a chain fence and a few small foot holds on the side of the cliff face. Makes my hands sweat just thinking about it.
Another look from the top.
Spruce Tree House
The last dwelling was a self guided tour, much easier to access.
Here Adam is demonstrating how they would have ground their corn by using 2 stones. It was impossible for them to separate the flour from the stone dust and so ingesting the dust would have taken its toll on them physically.
This is a replica of a kiva, where we could climb down inside of to see what it would have been like.
Very dusty inside.
The path to the top.
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