Cruising the West (Day 2)

As promised, Day two of our long weekend found us waking in Mesa Verde Colorado.

I had been to Mesa Verde a long time ago. It left a very vivid memory in my young mind. A lot of the things I loved to do as a kid were directly traceable to the visit that I made there I think. I was absolutely fascinated by the fact that these prehistoric peoples we able to construct and live in these beautiful homes in the sides of sheer cliff faces. I remember trying to copy and replicate their Atlatl and even showed my boys when they were little the idea of it as an example of leverage. Who knows, may be the reason I want to have an earth sheltered home in some way comes from the homes I saw in these cliffs and from walking in the cool shadow below the cliff faces...

Enough with the waxing poetic though, I promised photos and by golly photos you shall get... Enjoy...

A view from the top of the Mesa. The Ancestral Peubloans farmed this flat sun drenched mesa for corn, beans and squash beginning nearly 1400 years ago. Look below to see what a task that was.
This is the 30 ft ladder that we climbed to get into the dwelling knows as the Balcony House. Keep in mind, the Native Americans that lived in these homes did not use ladders... They climbed the rocks. All throughout the area you can see the hand and foot holds carved into the sandstone cliff walls.

The Balcony house dwellings. These buildings have been fortified and strengthened, but they have not been rebuilt. They are original buildings that were left as is around 1200 A.D.

The detail and craftsmanship were amazing! For anyone who's ever built anything, let alone from stone and clay (with no metal carving implements mind you) it was a wonder to see the plumb walls and perfectly straight and square corners.

The wood you can see sticking out of the buildings indicates a ceiling and floor. Did I mention that these dwellings were two, three and even four floors high? The wood is also original.

After going through the Balcony House we headed over to a different part of the mesa to the largest Cliff Dwelling of it's kind, the Cliff Palace. It's huge and amazing and, and, and, well, I'll let the pictures talk...
The Cliff Palace from the side of the cliff on the way in.

A four story dwelling... like prehistoric sky-rises!

This is a Kiva, the center for religious activity in the community. Each family had one of their own. They had ceilings that were constructed making them flush with the ground above so they were walked right over and used a ladder to get in through a whole in the roof.

Here you can see more of the dwellings and the Kiva.

As the park ranger put it, "We like to paint and decorate our homes... and so did the puebloans that lived here. Look up to the second floor and you can see the original paintings on the walls.

Prehistoric apartments at another location called the Spruce Tree House. Here you can see the ladder coming out of a Kiva that has been rebuilt to demonstrate how they looked.

Note the blackened ceiling from the prehistoric fires.
And that was the majority of the Mesa Verde. There was more of course, but you get the gist. Very amazing and historically significant. If you can make it there once in your life it would be worth it!

Late that afternoon we headed out for our next stop. On the way though we wanted to make one quick pit-stop. At the four corners of the states Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.


And to our disappointment it was "under construction." But I did take this picture just for posterity. We did try after all!

And on the way out, the funniest State sign award goes to..... New Mexico.

Keep in mind that this is two sides of the SAME SIGN! I guess if I stood right next to one of the side posts I would be in New Mexico, too funny.

The day was wearing on though and we had another 500 miles to go. so we were on the road again. Till the next stop. Any guesses? Here's a hint. It's probably the deepest sight the you can see in the Southwest.
Till next time!
P~