We've lived in Colorado for 12 years now (wow!) and yet we still haven't seen a very large part of the state. There are many reasons, but one of them is NOT lack of worthy sites. Mostly, it's just that Colorado is a big place, and attractions have many miles between them. Tough to do, even with great kids like ours.
So, it was a nice kick in the butt to have my mother and father come for a visit and suggest checking out Mesa Verde as a second big summer vacation (We'd already been to the Outer Banks this summer!). With a full day's drive in each direction, it wasn't something we were likely to do again soon, and it made sense to rent a minivan and try to pace ourselves and take the "scenic" route... literally!
First up, a short night in Crested Butte, just to cut the driving in half. We had a lovely breakfast in town and took a short hike to enjoy some beautiful weather and aspens, then made it to Durango in time for dinner. Already a day and a half in, we were really glad for the space and comfort that the minivan afforded us!
Mesa Verde on Sunday was amazing. Of course we'd all seen pictures but there is really something that takes your breath away when you see the cliff dwellings in person. As an engineer, I really marvelled at the simplicity and logic of the construction, and as a manufacturer and manager, I was doing mental arithmetic all day to figure out how much manpower it would take to build and maintain the small town of apartments and religious houses. Each of the sites in Mesa Verde that we visited are slightly different and have their own special worth. My favorite was actually the Far View sites, where we could get a lot closer and which are a good 200 years older than the more famous sites like Cliff Palace. Far View House and Pipe house were my particular favorites.
Just goes to show how you never know what life will hand you! On a snowy December day in 1888, while ranchers Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason searched Mesa Verde’s canyons for stray cattle, they unexpectedly came upon Cliff Palace for the first time. The following year, the Wetherill brothers and Mason explored an additional 182 cliff dwellings. Now there are over 600 sites listed in the park. Here's Cliff Palace:
No one knows quite why the dwellings were abandoned, but they were home to many generations... in fact, there is evidence in several sites of hundreds of years of habitation. I could see how it took a lot of teamwork and good governance to live and work and pray in such close quarters and in such harsh conditions. We saw more than a bit of teamwork ourselves- here's Xander helping Dad negotiate the steps...
and Dad helping Xander up the big ladders. Xander wasn't scared, but I was glad he had someone close enough to catch if need be!
Some single-person units.... who on earth would choose to live in this neighborhood and how the heck did they get in?
Don't worry, Mom wasn't breaking the rules, it just looks like it! It was almost impossible to see the well preserved glyphs by peaking in the window, but a good flash on the camera really lit them up... amazing!
Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between A.D. 1211 and 1278
Next up? Sand Dunes and The Durango Silverton train!
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