A Spontaneous Visit to Mesa Verde National Park - Part Two - Hikes and Visits to Some of the Dwellings

My spontaneous visit to Mesa Verde turned into an eight hour visit which barely gave me an outline of what I could see and learn. I started by driving and seeing the long views.  Then I picked a few places to hike around and get long views of some of the dwellings.

The Ancestral Pueblo people began living on the mesa top at Mesa Verde during the 1000's. After about 600 years, around 1190, they moved into dwellings build on the sides of cliffs, climbing back up to the mesa top to farm. The houses we see today were built around 1200 and abandoned within the next 100 years.

 I planned to research each of the sites I visited and share them with you.  But with working up to 40 hours a week, entertaining company and making preparations to entertain others..... and did I mention that I have a big garden to maintain and harvest? ..... I'm not having time to put into research for my blogs. I'll be visiting the park again and will give you better information.

I was impressed by the size of these yucca seed pods. Yucca was an important plant for food and fiber

This was the site right behind the museum that was fascinating with lots of artifacts from the mesas. 

Another view

A closeup

The dwellings are on cliff faces.  The inhabitants had to climb up to the mesas to farm and then carry the harvest back down

Still at the first site. 

I think this is the site where you can only go on ranger led tours. You climb ladders inside and then have a very steep hike back to the beginning of the tour.  I'll have to get in shape. 

Another view

The light was changing as I rushed to see as much as possible

I was fascinated to see all the deep clefts in the mesas which provided the places for cliff dwellings

This site is called many windows and was one of the farthest ones I photographed. 

The earliest dwellings were on the mesas before the cliff dwellings were built. The next set of pictures is of Far View which was a good sized settlement.

Kivas played an important part in the religious life and seem to be in every family's dwelling

Another part of the village

I love the geometry of these places 

A storm approached and the sun was close to setting as I was leaving. I decided to make another stop to see if I could get a sunset picture.  That didn't pan out but meant I didn't leave until almost 9:00 PM.

When this comes out, I'll be spending a week of camping and playing with friends.

I hope to get back in early fall and again in early spring. I want to snowshoe there and do lots more exploring and learning about our ancient peoples. Some of the sites are only open to tours, so I plan to go on a few of them.  

On a personal note, I'll be moving house (tent) from the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park to the West Side when this publishes. My Florida friends and I had a great day hiking in the Bear Lake Area.  They are enjoying a shower and a little walking around in Estes Park while I, still dirty, am downloading pictures and playing on line. I'll be posting blogs about our adventures in a couple of weeks. I still have blogs about the visit from my friend Natalie to publish.