Mesa Verde National Park--Cliff Dwelling at its Finest!

History Lesson!
Today I'm going to start off with the history lesson before you see any pictures.  This will give you some basic background on this fascinating area of the country and the people who inhabited these cliff dwellings.

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished here. Today, Mesa Verde national Park preserves a spectacular reminder of this ancient culture. The park contains over 4,000 known archeological sites including cliff dwellings and the mesa top sites of pithouses, pueblos, masonry towers, and farming structures.

The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the North American continent. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling and constructing new rooms for nearly a century. By the late 1270s, the population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona and became today's modern pueblo people. By 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended.  The best guess as to why they migrated from the cliff dwellings is a harsh drought which would have severely impacted their farming and thus their food supply.

Here we are at the southern entrance to the park.  There is only this one entrance off Highway 160. You know I love those National Park signs!  And in this photo you can see the Burton's little pupster, Sophie.  I guess we left Sadie in the car!

Right at the entrance is this stunning sky-piercing mesa.  As you can see, it was a beautiful, clear day--perfect for exploring Mesa Verde.  But, you can also see the clouds rising in the background, and we did have just a touch of precipitation, not much to worry about, though.  I must be getting used to the ever-changing Colorado weather since a little bit of drizzle doesn't even affect me anymore!

There are two main roads in the park--the Wetherill Mesa Road and the Chapin Mesa Road.  The Chapin Mesa Road has the most sites so we opted for that one.  It is a 20-mile drive to get the end, but there are a few overlook stops along the way.  We weren't all that interested in them as we were most interested in the actual cliff dwellings.  We also made the decision to only do the self-guided tours because we had the dogs with us.

 

Our first actual stop was the Spruce Tree House which is the best preserved cliff dwelling in the park. And, lucky for us, it offered a self-guided tour.  We walked down a paved trail to get to the actual ruins.  Here are photos of both Gary and me on the way down.

And here are some photos of the Spruce Tree House taken from the rapidly descending trail.  And believe me, I was thinking about the ascent the whole time we were descending!

 

 

Now for some close-up shots ... Houston, we have landed!  Aren't they amazing?  The blackened areas on the ceilings and walls are from their fires.

 

 

 

 

Here's a great shot of both Gary and Danny hanging around at the Spruce Tree House.

This photo is looking up at the Visitor's Center from the Spruce Tree House trail.  I did make it back up without having to get CPR or an emergency vehicle called in!  It definitely was a slow, methodical climb though and I was definitely out of breath.  A little deep breathing never hurt anyone :)

We continued on the Mesa Top Loop road for our next stop which was Navajo Canyon Overlook.

 

At this nice overlook Danny Danger's glasses fell off his shirt on the other side of the railing.  But that didn't stop him.  He vaulted right over and retrieved his errant glasses.  He completed what I am calling a very vibrant victory vault!

This little side trip off the Mesa Top Loop gave us views of the Square Tower House.  You can see from the scaffolding that they're working on ensuring the longevity of the structure over time.

We made a stop at the pithouses and villages which didn't warrant any photos (from my perspective anyway) but we did make it our own pit stop.  Once again, this National Park had excellent facilities all along the road making it convenient and easy to stop and get refreshed ... even for the dogs.  You can see the success written on Gary's face as he's flying Sadie's victory baggie!

They had these beautiful plants that reminded me of Yucca, but they weren't tall like Yucca plants.  I'm not sure what they are, but they had these beautiful white flowers and they were blooming everywhere.

 

Here are views of even more cliff dwelling ruins.  According to the sign at this stop, the Ancient Puebloans spent most of their time (about 600 years) living on top of the mesas and only lived in the actual cliff dwellings for their final 75-100 years (between AD 1200 and 1300).  Just think they did all that work for only about three generations--you, your kids and your grandkids!!

 

 

 

 

The Sun Point View offered more cliff dwelling observation opportunities.

 

 

The Sun Temple stop had this area that showed no signs of habitation. The central pit was too large for cooking fires but held layer-upon-layer of ashes.  Its size and carefully crafted symmetrical features suggest community-wide ceremonial gatherings.  This picture is looking through one of the hallways or entrance portals.

This is a spout on the outside of the circular pit.  You can't really see it from this photo, but the spout is wooden with some sort of cement adhering it to the wall's structure. 

 

Our next stop was from an overlook on the Mesa Top Loop and it is the Cliff Palace.  In the first and third photos below, you can see the people who are taking the special tour that involves climbing four ladders.

 

 

Next stop on the Mesa Top Loop was the House of Many Windows.  Can you guess why it's called that?

The Hemingway House was our next stop.  It was quite a bit smaller than the others and I really had to zoom in to even get these photos below.

 

On our way out of the park, we did stop to get some pictures of the valley below.  It was still a beautiful day so we had perfect scenery.

 

Isaiah 58:11-12
"And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.  Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell."