After we left Moab, we headed to Colorado to explore Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde was inhabited by Native Americans as early as 7500 BCE. By the end of the 12th century, the massive cliff dwellings that we know today began to be constructed. The Mesa Verdeans farmed crops on top of their cliff dwellings and had to rock climb, sometimes with a baby on their backs, to get to the flat land above. I cannot imaging climbing these rocks myself, let alone with Harper on my back!
We purchased tickets for tours of the Cliff Palace and Long House cliff dwellings. We would have done the Balcony House tour as well, however, there is part of the tour where you have to crawl through a very tiny tunnel. My claustrophobia and Harper’s toddlerness prevented us from doing this tour. We camped right within the park in a beautiful RV campgrounds without hookups. The temperatures were so nice that we didn’t even need our AC. Our campsite was a short walk from a beautiful amphitheater where the park rangers gave campfire talks each night. We really enjoyed these talks. We saw all sorts of wildlife while at Mesa Verde. We saw deer, foxes, bunnies, and a bear!! The star gazing was fantastic here as well. I have never seen so many stars in my life. We had a fun time mapping out constellations. We had an amazing time exploring this beautiful national park.
Spruce Tree House is currently closed to visitors given the risk for rock fall. We admired it from afar.
We did the very strenuous, three mile hike on Petroglyph Loop Trail before our first cliff dwelling tour. It was intense!
We had to get skinny to pass through some of these rocks!
Harper loved it!
We saw our first ruins on this hike.
And more petroglyphs!
The view from the top was amazing!
Spruce Tree House
We had a 5pm tour of Cliff Palace.
It was my favorite!
At one of our campfire talks, we learned that people in the late 1800s would come to the ruins and throw parties, take artifacts and camp. This eventually lead to the protection and stabilization of the dwellings and the designation of Mesa Verde as a national park.
We saw many Kivas which are essentially the equivalent to the living room where stories were told, ancestors were remembered, lessons were learned and families spent much time together.
We loved our camp site.
One of our campfire talks!
We started our second day with a tour of Long House. We had to hike 1.5 miles just to get to the site.
There are marks in the stone where corn was ground into grain for hours and hours each day.
I love this hand print petroglyph in the rock.
Our bear friend!
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