Cliff Dwellers

Friday and Saturday were spent at Mesa Verde. Driving into the park was quite the journey.   The park sits on top of a Mesa which means that you have a 4 mile road uphill in second to get in and then out of the park.  The road is full of switchbacks which add some challenge when you are towing a camping trailer.   On Friday, we toured  Cliff Palace which was really interesting and fun.  We also did a hike to see the Petroglyphs that are etched onto a canyon wall.   The hike was only 2 ½ miles but at this altitude it was quite strenuous.  We met a park ranger on the trail who provided us with interesting information about the park and the Pueblo Indians who used to live there.  Saturday morning we woke up early and drove to the top of the mesa for a tour of Balcony House.

To enter this cliff dwelling you had to climb a 35 foot ladder.  The scenery from Balcony house was beautiful and you could picture the people sitting there weaving baskets and enjoying the view.  The Indians had made a tunnel that served as the exit from the cliff house and after crawling through the tunnel you had to climb the cliff to get to the mesa above.  We had a ladder and steps provided by the park service to do this but the original people used toe holds that they carved out of the rock ledge to climb up to the mesa where they did their farming.  Saturday was also a great day for animal sightings….. we saw deer, turkey wild horses and even a wolf!