Mesa Verde
Since our trip to Colorado in 2018 we have looked forward to seeing Mesa Verde
. Todays trip was no disappointment. With our fairly early start today, we were ahead of most of the other tourist's. The ranger at the front suggested the best way to view the park. This park is over 20 miles long and has two different ways to see the most we could. The drive back to the Longhouse Loop was just over 12 miles long. This is not a road for the faint of heart, with lots of curves and steep climbs and downhills without many guardrails. This took us through lots of past fire areas.
Of course some show this more than others. At the end of the road was a five mile paved trail that overlooked the "Longhouse"
and when we got back to the parking lot we took a trail that allowed us to walk down to another cliff house "Step House". At this house we were able to go into some of the rooms. One of the things that intrigued me was a rock that showed how the folks got in and out of the canyon. The rock had small cuts into it that allowed a very nimble person to climb in and out.
This rock also had some petroglyphs on it too. After finishing this we drove over to the other side of the canyon where there were overlooks that allowed us to see as many as 4 different rock house from one location. Even though we could see them form this overlook the houses were spread out over a mile on one side of a mesa. Most all of the rock houses faced south and were protected from the afternoon sun. These settlements were agrarian so they had to climb out and come to the top of the mesa to farm. Our last place see was "Cliff Palace".
This was the most extensively constructed of the rock houses.
Not realizing how long it was going to take to visit Mesa Verde,
we did not bring our lunch we had to make do with what was available in the car. Oh, we always travel with some type of food.