Mesa Verde National Park

Need to drive up and over this Mesa!

28 years ago we visited this national park and I do not remember the long drive in to where the cliff dwellings are located.  We did our normal routine, go to the visitor's center to get acclimated, get the park's map on things to see and do.  However, the movie of the park was shown at the Chapin Mesa visitor's center - not at the main entrance, so off we drove.  20 miles later and drive through a tunnel and climbed up and over the mesas, we watched the movie and planned our trip from there.  Mesa Verde, which means Green Table in Spanish, is a VERY large park. We drove 20 miles just to get to the largest preserved cliff dwelling, Spruce Tree House, and then another 10 miles to go on to Cliff Palace and Balcony House, then back track in miles and you can go another 20 miles to Long House and Step House.

The walk path down to Spruce Tree House

Spruce Tree House Dwelling

Over 4,500 archeological sites and over 600 cliff dwellings have been discovered so far. Talk about vista views!  When we were driving to Spruce Tree House we could see Shiprock in the distance - about 88 miles away!  The ancestral people lived in this area from 550 AD and thrived for 800 years and left for unknown reasons by 1300 AD.  Dwellings were carved out under cliffs facing the western sky, taking advantage of the sun to warm the pueblos. Only one dwelling, Balcony House, faces east and they do not know what purpose this house was used for or why it faced the morning sun, not the afternoon.

Spruce Tree House

We hiked down to see Spruce Tree House up close, the only cliff dwelling you can hike to on a self-guided tour.  All other cliff dwellings you can drive to a lookout area and view from a distance, or take a ranger led guided tour and get up close.  We opted not to do any ranger tours because you had to be able to climb up and down four ladders and walk up/down steep inclines and climb through narrow tunnels.  My foot is not healed enough to do that.  But we did take the 1.2 mile hike to the Balcony House overlook in Soda Canyon.  Pretty impressive. Not only the cliff dwelling but the fact that I could do the moderate hike - my foot definitely is not 100% and by evening it was throbbing. We took the Mesa Loop Drive which provided many opportunities to stop and view other dwellings.

Cliff Palace - ranger led tour

House of Many Windows 

Balcony House

Soda Canyon

Today we are scheduled to have the RV service technician come by to see what damage Buddy did when he crawled up under the dash.  Hopefully not too difficult to fix.  Buddy is adjusting - picking on Grace all the time.  Grace is right now sleeping on top of the dash, in the sun, while Buddy is snooping around in the bathroom (he is very inquisitive!). We are getting more comfortable with this RV, the changes we made last week seem to fit perfectly.