Mesa Verde

From Moab (Utah) we drove to Cortez Colorado, the closest town to Mesa Verde National Park, the next park on our plan.  This is a park with lots of cliff dwellings from Ancestral Pueblo native Americans (also called Anasazi, but that term is in decline).

The town of Cortez is in a valley and we enter the park from there.  But then we quickly drive up and up to the top of the mesa, perhaps 1,000 feet climb.  These are some views during the drive.

This is breathtaking scenery, but for Beth, what contributes most to the "breathtaking" is the sharp curves and steep dropoffs!

The park tells the story (to the extent that we know it) of a large group of people who lived in this area for 700 or so years (about 500 AD to 1200 AD).  In general, people are familiar with the cliff buildings, but the full story is that the Ancient Puebloans lived on the top of the mesa for most of their time here. They built "pit houses" and there are hundreds of the foundations still on the mesa.  They moved over the edge of the cliffs only for the last 200 or so years.  And then they left and there are some possible explanations for their move (like drought, soil exhaustion, or just a natural process of moving on...) but our impression is that no one is really sure of the exact reason for their departure.

Here's an example of the remains of a pit house.

But most people are familiar with the cliff houses.  There are hundreds of them in this area and you can't help but be impressed with the efforts to build and live in these.  The people would farm on the top of the mesa and then live in the cliffs.  They had to scale the cliffs continually to get their crops and visit other people.

Some of the buildings were two and three stories high.  Also, the workmanship is very impressive, with nicely cut sandstone and very square edges on the buildings.  Because of the dry climate and protection by the cliff edge, a lot of the original construction still remains.  Here are some random images.

There was endless variation of the cliff dwellings - large, small, etc.  We did a self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House, the third-largest village.  One element of all the buildings is a "kiva," a circular room used for ceremonies.  Matthew was able to explore one.

We also did a Ranger-lead tour of Cliff Palace, the largest village.  We had to descend about 100 feet of stairs to get there.

It was fascinating to see the buildings an learn more about these people.  But we also experienced the "law of trails" that if you go down, eventually you have to go back up.  Here we are on the multiple ladders to return to the mesa top.

The original inhabitants did not have these ladders.  They carved small (very small) steps into the rock.  Here's an example.

We were happy the Park Service provided the ladders!