July 19 - Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde literally translates as "green table", where the green comes from vegetation on these flat-topped geological structures. Yesterday, we saw "blue mesa" (blue from carbon deposits in the rock) and "red mesa" (red from iron oxide) at Petrified Forest. So now we have a complete set of primary mesas!
Again, we tried to get going fairly early to avoid some of the afternoon heat, and drove up to Mesa Verde in beautiful morning light. As a bonus, the morning temperature at these higher elevations was only about 60F (15C) – a welcome relief! The mesa was absolutely stunning, with its geology written in huge bands of colored sandstone for all to see. We climbed winding roads up and up and up through scrubby oak trees, and a forest of dead pine and juniper trees (much of the park was burned by wildfires in 2000). We purchased tickets at the visitor center for tours of two of the archeological sites for which Mesa Verde Park was created – both sites are villages set into alcoves of the cliffs overlooking dramatic canyons.
Our first tour was of “cliff palace,” the largest of the alcove sites with over 100 rooms and over 20 Kivas (ceremonial underground chambers). To access the site we descended some impressively steep stairs cut into the rock by the CCC in the 1930s and climbed a few stout ladders. It was amazing to think that the original inhabitants climbed in and out using hand carved hand and toe holds that didn’t look more than an inch deep and ran practically straight up the canyon wall! The city was amazing, with multistory buildings and separate seed storage areas. Because of the dry southwest air there were even some well preserved timbers (used to make lintels, and to support the roofs) left after nearly 800 years of abandonment.
In the afternoon we explored some of the sites on the Wetherhill Mesa (a slightly less visited area of the park) along self-interpretive trails. Then began a second guided tour, this time to “long house.” Again this was a huge collection of beautifully constructed buildings tucked away under an overhang in the canyon wall. Since the group on this tour was much smaller (about 15, as opposed to the earlier tour of 50) it was possible to get much closer to everything and look at the details. The tour group moved in a much more leisurely fashion as well, which meant that had a chance to imagine the site as it once was as well as enjoy it as it now is.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving to a few other accessible sites, mostly for earlier dwellings (500-700 AD) on top of the mesas (the cliff dwellings were only occupied for a brief span of time, just before the population left Mesa Verde for good). Then we hurried back to Cortez for some tasty Chinese take-out.
Again, we tried to get going fairly early to avoid some of the afternoon heat, and drove up to Mesa Verde in beautiful morning light. As a bonus, the morning temperature at these higher elevations was only about 60F (15C) – a welcome relief! The mesa was absolutely stunning, with its geology written in huge bands of colored sandstone for all to see. We climbed winding roads up and up and up through scrubby oak trees, and a forest of dead pine and juniper trees (much of the park was burned by wildfires in 2000). We purchased tickets at the visitor center for tours of two of the archeological sites for which Mesa Verde Park was created – both sites are villages set into alcoves of the cliffs overlooking dramatic canyons.
Our first tour was of “cliff palace,” the largest of the alcove sites with over 100 rooms and over 20 Kivas (ceremonial underground chambers). To access the site we descended some impressively steep stairs cut into the rock by the CCC in the 1930s and climbed a few stout ladders. It was amazing to think that the original inhabitants climbed in and out using hand carved hand and toe holds that didn’t look more than an inch deep and ran practically straight up the canyon wall! The city was amazing, with multistory buildings and separate seed storage areas. Because of the dry southwest air there were even some well preserved timbers (used to make lintels, and to support the roofs) left after nearly 800 years of abandonment.
In the afternoon we explored some of the sites on the Wetherhill Mesa (a slightly less visited area of the park) along self-interpretive trails. Then began a second guided tour, this time to “long house.” Again this was a huge collection of beautifully constructed buildings tucked away under an overhang in the canyon wall. Since the group on this tour was much smaller (about 15, as opposed to the earlier tour of 50) it was possible to get much closer to everything and look at the details. The tour group moved in a much more leisurely fashion as well, which meant that had a chance to imagine the site as it once was as well as enjoy it as it now is.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving to a few other accessible sites, mostly for earlier dwellings (500-700 AD) on top of the mesas (the cliff dwellings were only occupied for a brief span of time, just before the population left Mesa Verde for good). Then we hurried back to Cortez for some tasty Chinese take-out.
posted by blumaroo at 11:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home