Cortez and Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Tawny, with her ducks

Sunday, April 2nd, we moved the trailer from Monticello, UT to Cortez, CO.  We're 800 ft lower in elevation here and hoping that we won't get as much snow.  The tree buds are starting to open here and though we haven't seen any flowers, it does look more like spring than we've seen lately.

There is a large field behind the RV park and both cats have enjoyed their walks through the field - rolling in the dirt and checking out the numerous prairie dog holes.  Tawny found a small dugout that had ducks swimming in it!

John and I finally got haircuts!!  This is the first town we've found in over 2 weeks that actually has barbers and hairdressers in it.  Who knew there were towns (and counties!) without people to cut hair!!!  We're very thankful to finally get that done!



Monday, April 3rd, we headed to the Anasazi Cultural Centre near Dolores, CO to learn about the "Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde".  "Anasazi" is a Navajo word that has long been used to refer to the early people of Mesa Verde and the surrounding area, but it is no longer politically correct; the current term being favoured is "Ancestral Puebloan"to show a link to the modern Pueblo people of the southwest United States.  Unfortunately, Anasazi is still being used for museums, interpretive signs and the aforementioned Cultural Centre.  It will take a while to completely eradicate its usage.

On the way to Mesa Verde

Tuesday, April 4th, we battled 45-50 km/hr winds (with temps near 0 deg C) to explore Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez (where the cliff dwellers lived).  It's a bit of an uphill climb to get to!  Park Point and Point Lookout are at about 8,500 ft, then the Park angles downward and most of the cliff dwellings are at about 7,000 feet.

Dawn and her snow-friend at Point Overlook.  Brrrrrr....

We stopped at a number of overlooks but didn't dilly-dally as it was freaking cold and I had trouble holding my camera steady to take pictures with the wind gusting I'm sure over 60 kms/hr.

We spent a couple of hours going through the museum/interpretive centre (to warm up) and we were very happy we did.  Between the museum today and the cultural centre yesterday, we had a good background on the peoples who built the dwellings before we ventured out to see them.

Spruce Tree House; Alcove is 216 ft long & 89 ft deep; est pop ~90

What an amazing feat!!  These people built stone houses and villages into the cliff faces about 200-300 ft below the mesa top, and 800-1000 ft above the canyon bottom.  How the heck did they get their building materials into those alcoves?  Did they lower them down from the mesa top or haul them up from the canyon bottom?  Either way, holy freaking engineering nightmare.

These villages were all built between 1200 and 1280 AD.

Square Tower House; 4 storeys high; 60 of original 80 rooms remain

Note the retaining walls in front and towers and homes behind

They built retaining walls on the slopes below the alcoves to give themselves a flat surface on which to build their structures.  Their food storage areas (granaries) were also built of stone right into the cliff faces above or below their villages.  They traveled between the alcoves and to the mesa top via ladders and toe and hand holds that they chipped into the rock walls.

Cliff Palace: Alcove is 215 ft wide by 90 ft deep and 60 ft high; est Pop ~120

You can see where my other shots were taken, relative to mesa top

All my pictures are showing the "houses" (which are really villages) relative to the mesa top.  But to get a true appreciation of how far UP those alcoves are, here's a shot of the canyon below.  Incredible how they could live perched on those cliff faces... 

There are cliff dwellings on the sides of both of those mesas - one is called Wetherill Mesa and is only open late May to early September due to the higher elevation, and the other is Chapin Mesa, which is the one we visited.


This is a very interesting National Park to visit!  I don't know of anywhere else that had "cliff dwellers" - at least in North America.  How cool is that?  (John thinks they were nuts).