Kris on stairs from Cliff Palace - Mesa Verde NP

Warning signs were posted everywhere about the strenuous hiking and climbing required to access the cliff dwellings. Not too surprising, since these were built into the sides of cliffs. And they weren't kidding! With the high altitude and heat, it wasn't an easy climb into or out of the tour site. Here's a photo of Kris going down rather tall, narrow steps to enter Cliff Palace. The staircase was in between several wooden ladders. The stairs were actually built in the 1930's as make-work projects; the native puebloans used hand-toe holds to reach these places. This tour was the easiest to access; the one tour we didn't do included a 30-ft ladder climb and a crawl through a 2-ft-wide tunnel. The visitors center even had a full-sized model of the tunnel (I think it was so you could decide if you could fit through it).