From Moab we traveled to the southwest corner Colorado. They welcomed us, with a brown sign that said they’re colorful. 😉 Well, I guess marijuana is legal here.
Our next adventure would take us someplace new for us – exploring the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. It was not a long drive, so we would have all afternoon to learn about and enjoy the park.
We entered the National Park from the highway, and had about a 20 mile drive to get to the Lodge where we would be staying and even farther to the visitor’s center. We would be going up a couple thousand feet in elevation to a high plateau. The fall colors were really pretty.
We got to the visitors center, and we were at about 8100′ elevation. Two of the three large community cliff dwellings require a ranger tour to see. So first thing was to get tickets to those. Only one on them, the Balcony House, was open and had tickets available for the 5:30 tour. Got it! The one that didn’t require a ranger tour was closed too. It was right by the visitors center, so at least we could see it from a distance. You can see the plateau landscape above, then below inside a cave-looking area.. is a community!
Here is a close-up shot. The dwellings don’t look that big; like they are doll houses. I think it is because the arch ways are so huge that it is hard to get perspective. This shows a three story building down there! But I’m thinking the native peoples were not as tall as most people of today.
Since we couldn’t tour this one, we hopped in the car and drove around several scenic loops where there were ruins and overlooks. This excavation was interesting, and told about how and why historians and archaeologists suspect it was built the way it was. Pit dwellings would have a wooden upper structure and roof. Archaeologists don’t really know a lot about the people who lived up here on this high plateau, but they’ve tried to extrapolate information from the Pueblo dwellings in the desert southwest. They presume a fire pit in the center, and then the tunnel in the back was actually to facilitate fresh air and draft and venting for the fire and smoke!
Here is one of the many overlooks to view a dwelling across the valley.
A closer-up shot.
This was a Pueblo type structure that was not open to go inside. In fact, this window was up high, so I just held up my camera to the opening to take the picture. I was surprised to see what was inside!
I am still just amazed at how tiny everything under the cliff looks! This was a really big community dwelling.
And then looking off to the right… is a huge valley.
Kenny wasn’t feeling very good, and really didn’t want to do the tour. But this is an adventure! Come-on! So then the ranger told us that the tour would include climbing down stairs, walking along a cliff edge, climbing up long steep ladders, squeezing through tight spaces, and so on. OK Kenny thought. Game on. This will be worth the price of admission just to watch Karen (she who is afraid of heights) do this! So away we went.
Holy smokes – what did I get us into!? This ladder is huge and steeeeeep! This was the Park’s entry way up to the cliff dwelling Balcony House.
Once we got up there safely, we had to climb through this little passage way…
…and up a little ladder through a fairly small opening. The ranger didn’t say anything about large people might have difficulty.
This is looking back at people still coming up the steep ladder. There was probably 40 people in this tour. They run tours every 30 minutes, so we had to stay on schedule.
Part of the dwellings in this community area.
The ranger telling us about the construction – they even had the pit dwellings here in the cliffs!
Walking across the front of the community…. no guard rails, no hand rails, nothing but a cliff. Holy Cow. This made we wobbly, which made Kenny snicker. The native population who lived here was definitely controlled by the smart ones who survived childhood!!
Then to exit, we had to climb through another little tunnel, which the Park believes to be the original entrance to the dwellings. This built in tunnel is a curiosity to the archaeologists, because they cannot find any evidence to indicate that there were battles or enemies or predators to be held outside by this safety entrance.
The other end of the tunnel.
Someone coming through. It was certainly a one-way road! But why did they fill it in with rock to make a tiny tunnel, when the stone arch created it’s own (larger) tunnel anyway. Hmmm.
And then… holy smokes, another realllllly steeeeeep ladder. This one took every ounce of self talk I could come up with to not just freeze in fear half way up. I was really seriously scared and almost couldn’t do it.
Thank the good Lord that there were rails and chains and safety fence at the top. I literally crawled on my hands & knees at the top of the ladder, and held on with white knuckles to stand up and walk the rest of the way up.
I am really glad we took the tour. It was very interesting, although very challenging for this scaredy-cat. And Kenny had fun watching me try to control my freak-out. He still really didn’t feel good.
It was about sunset, so we headed back to the lodge for some dinner and to relax. This is not a typical National Park Lodge.
But we had a spectacular view!
It was really beautiful. Looking at the stars after sunset was magnificent.
It got really cold outside at night. Thank goodness our little lodge room had good heat, but we could hear the wind whistle through the doors. Kenny didn’t sleep good at all. All day and all night, he just felt like he wasn’t getting enough air. As soon as we dropped back down to the highway at 6000′ elevation, he felt fine. We concluded that he actually had some altitude sickness! We’ve never stayed up at that elevation for that long, and this day, his body really didn’t like it. So – let’s make our way to Durango! We stopped there just for breakfast at a little diner that was very popular, and really good food.
Our original itinerary would have us spend more time in the Durango area, but we decided to move on and get some miles behind us. However, Colorado ranch and farmland was really very beautiful!!
