This place is amazing! Mesa Verde (Spanish for “green table”) covers 52,000 acres and preserves and protects about 5,000 archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. 1400 years ago it was home to the Ancestral Puebloans for more than 750 years. The three largest cliff dwellings are accessible during ranger-guided tours. We had tickets for the 9 a.m. Cliff Palace tour and we were so excited we showed up an hour early! Cliff Palace is Mesa Verde’s largest cliff dwelling with 150 rooms and 23 kivas (circular rooms for ceremonies and social gatherings). It was constructed from 1190 – 1191 and again from 1260 – 1280 and inhabited about 110 people. We soon realized how lucky we were to have the first tour because our pictures are of an empty dwelling. For the rest of the day, this place is packed with ranger-guided tours leaving every 30 minutes. The construction is amazing. The sandstone is carved into blocks and they used a mortar made of sand, wood ash, and water to construct 3- and 4-story structures. Cliff Palace is 90% original, with only minor restorations done to reinforce and stabilize the main structures – it is unbelievable to see their work up close and to imagine what life was like for these people. We then went to our tour at Balcony House. This tour was so fun - we had to climb 32- and 60-foot ladders, crawl through 18’ tunnels and climb “stairs” that were nearly straight up a cliff. This dwelling had 28 rooms and 2 kivas and was constructed between 1180 and 1270. After our little work out, we had a picnic lunch, toured the visitors center and museum, and went to some overlooks to see dwellings across the canyon. We returned to camp early excited to have an early dinner and attend the fireside ranger program. Our plans changed when a crazy rain/thunderstorm rolled in. We scrambled to put everything back into the Sprinter, listened to the thunder and lightning that seemed to be striking right near us, and read up on some of the dwellings we’ll see tomorrow. After a long day in the sun, we ended up falling asleep early to the sound of huge raindrops pounding on the roof of the Sprinter.
