As you drive east on the Trail of the Ancients (Highway 160) through the Four Corners region where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado touch, past the Ute Mountains, you see an unreal promontory stone cliff hovering on the horizon and it calls to you—what is it? It is Mesa Verde, home of the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called “Anasazi”), who lived on top of this green mesa and in its cliffs from A.D. 600 to about 1300. Mesa Verde National Park celebrates their story and honors their history and accomplishments through an array of 400 archeological digs that National Geographic Traveler named as one of the fifty “must-see” places of a lifetime.
The beauty and complexity of these early homes and villages speak eloquently of the ancient people who built them. Ranger-led tours are available of the extensive Cliff Palace and Balcony House sites pictured here. The Cliff Palace picture with fellow hikers gathered around the central ceremonial room, the “kiva”, is appropriate as these ancient people worked hard as a community, were deeply spiritual and gathered often to celebrate. You can hear the wind whispering through these shadowed rooms and imagine their lives anchored here by this stone and spirit.
Bob was not finding it an easy life as he wiggled through one of the tunnels at Balcony House and then had to climb 2 ladders—“how did they do it!,” he asks breathlessly. These amazing cliff-dwellings held the heat in winter and were cool in the summer, provided excellent protection and defense, and had water steaming through cracks in the sandstone which was also channeled ingeniously downhill to water their crops. The park museum also holds a treasure trove of their artifacts, pottery and basket art works as well as linkages to modern Native Americans who share their story.
As we toured Arches, Canyonland, Zion and the Grand Canyon National Parks, we often wondered about the native people who came before, and Mesa Verde National Park is a great accompaniment to this canyon story of the West.
Well, that’s the end of our national park tour for this year. Denver is 450 miles from here and we will be heading back there slowly and staying at 2 beautiful Colorado State parks, San Luis and Cheyenne Mountain, for the next few nights. It’s been fun sharing this with you. See you right here in June when we turn this back to a boat blog and take Baby Grand from Lake Champlain, through the beautiful Canadian canals back to the Great Lakes. You are welcome to come aboard.
The beauty and complexity of these early homes and villages speak eloquently of the ancient people who built them. Ranger-led tours are available of the extensive Cliff Palace and Balcony House sites pictured here. The Cliff Palace picture with fellow hikers gathered around the central ceremonial room, the “kiva”, is appropriate as these ancient people worked hard as a community, were deeply spiritual and gathered often to celebrate. You can hear the wind whispering through these shadowed rooms and imagine their lives anchored here by this stone and spirit.
Bob was not finding it an easy life as he wiggled through one of the tunnels at Balcony House and then had to climb 2 ladders—“how did they do it!,” he asks breathlessly. These amazing cliff-dwellings held the heat in winter and were cool in the summer, provided excellent protection and defense, and had water steaming through cracks in the sandstone which was also channeled ingeniously downhill to water their crops. The park museum also holds a treasure trove of their artifacts, pottery and basket art works as well as linkages to modern Native Americans who share their story.
As we toured Arches, Canyonland, Zion and the Grand Canyon National Parks, we often wondered about the native people who came before, and Mesa Verde National Park is a great accompaniment to this canyon story of the West.
Well, that’s the end of our national park tour for this year. Denver is 450 miles from here and we will be heading back there slowly and staying at 2 beautiful Colorado State parks, San Luis and Cheyenne Mountain, for the next few nights. It’s been fun sharing this with you. See you right here in June when we turn this back to a boat blog and take Baby Grand from Lake Champlain, through the beautiful Canadian canals back to the Great Lakes. You are welcome to come aboard.
