Mesa Verde NP
Mesa Verde National Park sits on a plateau in far southwestern Colorado. It was made a protected site by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. I visited here shortly after moving to Colorado in 1974. At that time you were allowed to wander through many of the ruins on your own. It was also believed to be the home of a people called the Anasazi or the "Ancient Ones." At that time in the 1970's we were told no one knew what happened to those people. What we learned on our visit this time is that the people that lived here are the ancestors of the current-day Pueblo Indian tribes. Things change, huh!?
The photo above is of the Cliff Palace, the largest of the cliff dwellings. It was closed due to stabilization work. Forty years ago my friends and I crawled all over this.
We were able to go on a guided tour of another of the cliff dwellings called Balcony House. The tour was led by a Park Ranger who never let us out of his sight and had lots of instructions about what not to do (basically, don't touch the original stones!).
The tour began from a spot directly above the ruin so it wasn't possible to see it as we descended the cliff until we came to a spot where we had to climb a 32 foot tall ladder.
It was wide enough that the group of 20+ on the tour went up it side-by-side so at one time there were probably 10-12 people on the ladder.
Ranger Doug was very informative, funny and sincere in his respect for the people who created and lived in this place.
It was hard to get shots without others on the tour group but I managed to get a few.
Kivas (the pit seen in the foreground, below) are a major part of the structure of the village and were believed to be used for ceremonial as well as more day-to-day aspects of the people's life, like weaving. The top of the kiva would have been covered by a timber structure then with mud that made a plaza in front of the brick-built rooms.
The ceiling timbers would have been set on top of the six pillars built into the wall of the kiva.
The cliff dwellings, surprisingly, were only a late aspect of the time people inhabited this mesa and canyon area. It is believed that the people moved to this area some time around 550 A.D. and continuously lived here until around 1300 A.D. The cliff dwellings were built beginning around 1200 A.D. Prior to that they lived on the top of the mesas and were closer to their crops. There is a village site on top called Far View and some of the buildings have been restored to a certain extent.
The photo above is of the Cliff Palace, the largest of the cliff dwellings. It was closed due to stabilization work. Forty years ago my friends and I crawled all over this.
We were able to go on a guided tour of another of the cliff dwellings called Balcony House. The tour was led by a Park Ranger who never let us out of his sight and had lots of instructions about what not to do (basically, don't touch the original stones!).
The tour began from a spot directly above the ruin so it wasn't possible to see it as we descended the cliff until we came to a spot where we had to climb a 32 foot tall ladder.
It was wide enough that the group of 20+ on the tour went up it side-by-side so at one time there were probably 10-12 people on the ladder.
Ranger Doug was very informative, funny and sincere in his respect for the people who created and lived in this place.
It was hard to get shots without others on the tour group but I managed to get a few.
Kivas (the pit seen in the foreground, below) are a major part of the structure of the village and were believed to be used for ceremonial as well as more day-to-day aspects of the people's life, like weaving. The top of the kiva would have been covered by a timber structure then with mud that made a plaza in front of the brick-built rooms.
The ceiling timbers would have been set on top of the six pillars built into the wall of the kiva.
The cliff dwellings, surprisingly, were only a late aspect of the time people inhabited this mesa and canyon area. It is believed that the people moved to this area some time around 550 A.D. and continuously lived here until around 1300 A.D. The cliff dwellings were built beginning around 1200 A.D. Prior to that they lived on the top of the mesas and were closer to their crops. There is a village site on top called Far View and some of the buildings have been restored to a certain extent.
As we were exploring the top of the mesa we were finally able to get a view of Balcony House from the other side of the canyon. It is just below the canyon rim just right of center under the arch (I don't have a telephoto lens).
Beautiful!!!
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