Mesa Verde

On our way home from Mexico, we stopped at Mesa Verde. It just outside of Cortez, Colorado near the 4 corners. I had always wanted to go here since I learned about it in elementary school. It was as wonderful as I imagined it to be. We stayed at the Mesa Verde Inn and first things first.....jumping on the beds!!!! We got up the next morning ready to spend the entire day at Mesa Verde National Park. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is cliff dwellings of the Anasazi people, or ancient Pueblo people. It was absolutely fascinating. We first went to the visitor center to buy the tour tickets (while in the park, we didn't buckle Lili and she was absolutely loving it). Then off to the museum and Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling. Now the first cliff dwelling we did was Spruce Tree House, 90% of it is original. Most of it was roped off but you still got to see a lot. They had a few hands on things too. Everybody, except Lili & I climbed down a ladder to an underground room. Then there was this other part that Gaby & Isabel got to play with the griding stones, where the Anasazi people ground their food. The black on the ceilings is from all the soot from the fires to cook and to keep warm. The next cliff dwelling was Balcony House. Enrique & his parents went on that tour while the kids took a nap. However, we didn't go on that tour on purpose and you'll see why. It was way too steep! The last cliff dwelling we did was Cliff Palace. This one is the most well known, best preserved, and largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde. We all took this tour, even though I was super scared to do it because of the climbing the tall ladders to get back up the side of the cliff with the kids and specially with Lili. About 800 years ago, this was a busy village. It was so amazing to be there standing there and seeing what these people built with there hands so long ago. Being there, looking at these dwelling, it felt almost sacred. It was so beautiful and inspiration. Here are a few known facts of Cliff Palace. The alcove is 89 feet deep, 59 feet high, and 288 feet long. There were 150 rooms (20-25 of which were for living, the rest were for storage) and 23 kivas. It was constructed continually from 1190-91 to 1260-80 A.D. There were 100-129 people living in this particular cliff dwelling. Hope you can figure out the right photos with the different cliff dwellings. I tried posting them together but it didn't work. I'm still working things out with the blogging stuff. hehehe