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Cliff Palace Mesa Verde National Park
Ancient Peublo cliff dwellings from around 1200 AD Hi Everyone,
So all that bad, cold weather we've been complaining about the past week and a half, well it doesn't sound all that bad right now. We are camping in Moab, Utah just outside of Arches National Park and it is about 91 degrees at 7 pm. Apparently this is about 10-15 degrees warmer than usual. We just can not win! Today we visited Mesa Verde National Park and it was stunning. Mesa Verde is the ancestral home of the Pueblo Indians located on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. To reach the park we climbed Mount Montezuma to about 9,000 feet. The panoramic views were amazing. They are amazing cliff dwellings located throughout the park, however, some of the larger sites require a guided tour. The rangers recommended that we visit the Cliff Palace Cliff Dwelling because it is the crown jewel of the park, with 150 rooms and 23 ceremonial Kiva's. Reaching the cliff is a feat in itself, it's about a 300 foot vertical descent by stairs and rickety ladders bolted to the rock (and then you have to climb back up-uggh). The effort is well worth it, I've never seen anything like it in my
Cliff Palace Mesa Verde National Park
Ancient Peublo cliff dwellings from around 1200 AD- This is the largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde with about 150 rooms and 23 Kivas life. The buildings themselves are so well preserved for having been inhabited for about 1200 years and then unoccupied for the last 800 years. It is unclear why the ancient pueblo people decided to leave the area but they moved further down in the southwestern part of the country.
Archeologists believe that Cliff Palace was not just a housing unit but also used for storage, trade, and ceremony. The ancient pueblo’s people had a very sophisticated system of trade with other tribes throughout the region; trader’s traveled far and wide to reach the cliff dwellings. The pueblo culture was primarily a matriarchal society, as women owned most of the property and arranged the marriages within the tribe. This fact alone contributed to their peaceful society with virtually no wars or strife with bordering tribes (also run by women). I think we could all learn a little from the ancient pueblos! It was amazing to be in a place where generations of people have come and gone and think back to what their life was like in ancient times. On the trek back up the cliff you can see the hand and toe holds they used to scale the cliff
whenever the ventured away from their home. The whole park is filled with fascinating history.
We decided to not tour the Balcony house cliff dwelling due to the ridiculous amounts of ladders directly on the cliff that you needed to scale both down and up. Instead we took about a 2 mile hike into the desert to an overlook of balcony house. We had our first cactus sighting along with a lizard of some form during out long and hot, hot, hot hike. Balcony House is primarily a residential cliff dwelling where the native people lived and farmed. Unfortunately once we got to the lookout point it was a bit difficult to see and photography, especially with a digital camera.
We did however choose to tour the Spruce Tree house cliff dwelling, which at least had a paved trail descending into the canyon. Spruce tree house is the most well preserved dwelling in the United states and the third most in the world. It was quite an impressive sight to say the least. The walls of the buildings are built remarkably well and still stand 1 degree away from PLUM (I am just trying to sound smart by
pretending to know what PLUM means but apparently I was informed that it means straight). Spruce Tree house was remarkable because you could actually climb in and experience the dwelling. You could enter the Kiva, which has it's original roof, and see where they performed numerous ceremonies and rights of passage. I truly enjoyed my time in Mesa Verde National Park, it was a very unique experience into the Native American culture and history.
Before we even reached the park we took an amazing drive from Colorado Springs down through Southern Colorado. We were only about 15 miles from New Mexico. We drove through some seriously beautiful country with mountains, valleys, and farmland. We passed through the Rio Grande National Forest and the San Juan Mountain Range. Everything was very lush and green, very different from the red, dusty desert we are in now.
Tomorrow we are off to Arches National Park, I am so excited. We are waking up very, very early to try to beat the heat, especially since some the arches have pretty strenuous hikes to get to-YEAH. Nothing like waking up early, no coffee, and hitting the trails for some hikes in 90 degree
plus weather! I feel like I should move to Boulder, I might be turning earthy crunchy before your eyes. Ha Ha, I doubt it. I'm still carrying my Coach bag!
I hope all is well with everyone back home and don't forget to leave comments!!
Love,
Laura
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Nannette
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Hey Laura I will take some of that warm weather over here!! Thanks for sharing your adventure!