WOW - another incredible day. This time we spent it at Mesa Verde National Park. We stayed at a campground in Cortez and drove to the park the following day. Wonderful scenery again!
We began our day at the Visitor Centre (which was 21 miles from the park entrance) where we picked up maps, jnr ranger books and watched the movie on the park. We started our drive UP the mountain with several stops at overlooks along the way - beautiful!
We even saw a wild horse - very cool!
At the Park Point Overlook we were at 8572 ft! We even had some snow!!
Then off to look around the great museum. This park was created to preserve the archeological heritage of the Puebloans. After we had done that we went to see the Spruce Tree House. We walked down a trail that took us to see this amazing cliff dwelling. There are over 600 dwellings here in the park. I had no idea how these people lived - this was truly amazing!
They chose overhangs as shelters from the sun and snow and then built right into the cliffs! They would make "holes" to climb up the cliffs to the plateaus above where they had their corn and beans - incredible!
We were able to climb right down into a kiva.
Several hundred people lived in these villages.
We then took a drive around the park and stopped and looked at several pithouses, and other dwellings. All SO interesting!
Then on to see the Cliff Palace.......
The Square Tower House........
and other dwellings !! WOW WOW WOW - again I say.....you just had to be there! What a great day!
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