The Cliff Dwellers

After Pagosa Springs, Lee and I headed for Mesa Verde National Park.  It is in southwestern Colorado, in the Four Corners area that includes southeastern Utah, northwestern New Mexico, and northeastern Arizona.  This region has more national parks than any other part of the United States, and it kept us busy for several days.  Hence, I am at least two weeks behind on the blog, but I hope to catch up before we arrive home (the last weekend of September).

Mesa Verde is much higher than the surrounding land.  Here is a view to the north, of the valley below:

Mesa Verde is generally flat and gently sloped towards the south, with several canyons cut by water and rivers over millions of years.

 

Water has shaped caves in the sides of the canyon cliffs, which the Ancestral Puebloans found ideal for their dwellings.  Some of the dwellings are simple, like those Lee and I saw in Walnut Canyon near Flagstaff a couple of years ago.  These smaller dwellings housed only one to a few families:

Mesa Verde NP is especially known however for its more elaborate dwellings, that housed 200 people or more.  These larger living areas are more like small cities, with elaborate and intricate structures.  They are beautiful to behold from the opposite side of the canyon.

The Puebloans built villages on top of the Mesa as well, but we focused on the cliff dwellings because we had seen examples of the mesa dwellings at Chimney Rock just a few days before.

We stopped at the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum to learn more about the Ancient Puebloan people.  We learned the Ancient Puebloans were ancestors of today's Hopi, Zuni, Taos, and Acoma people of Arizona and New Mexico.  They moved south from Mesa Verde in AD1200 or 1300, possibly because of drought and depletion of resources.

The museum itself looks as if it has not been updated in years, but it includes some charming miniature dioramas that show life on the Mesa 1,000 years ago and more.  The two dwellings in the photo below are of the oldest form of structure found at Mesa Verde, dating from AD 550 to 750.  These resemble some of those built at Chimney Rock.  During this period, these people used woven baskets rather than pottery, hence the name the Basketmaker Era.

The homes evolved over a few hundred years, to more closely resemble the adobes of today.  At the same time, baskets evolved into pottery as these people learned to work with fired clay.

I found it interesting that the Ancestral Puebloans always had turkeys nearby.  They never ate them, but they did use their feathers (turkeys, like other birds, molt a few times throughout the year) for many different purposes.  The bones were used for tools.  Now I want pet turkeys!

Mesa Verde has several cliff dwellings.  We first visited the Spruce Tree House, which is the only one open to self-guided tours and is across the canyon from the museum.  It is not the largest of the villages, but contains all the same elements.  And yes, that is Lee taking a photograph. 

Isn't it beautiful?  (Lee's photos below).

 We had to walk down one side of the canyon:

The largest trees, mostly Gamble oak, were at the bottom:

Then up the other side to the natural cave in the cliff.

 

I especially loved the natural rock gardens that were plentiful in this area.

Next, a slew of photographs, by both Lee and I, of the village.  The dwellings are much smaller than I expected, because the people were small.  They are so beautiful, though, I would love to figure out a way to make miniatures of them.  Should I start with thousands of tiny bricks of adobe? 

The sticks under the windows at the top of the photo below served as the support for a balcony.

The Puebloans always chose caves that faced south.  This way the winter sun, low in the sky, would warm their homes.  During the summer months, the sun would be high overhead and the cliff walls would keep the villagers cool.

Each of these villages had one or more kivas.  You may recall that in my last post I mentioned that kivas are sacred to the Pueblo people, and outsiders are not allowed to enter without an invitation.  At Spruce Tree House, there were eight kivas.  Two are still used by Puebloans today for special ceremonies.  They agreed to restore a third for tourists to visit, so we were actually allowed to enter it.  One enters by a ladder through the roof.

  

The wooden beams are covered with adobe, so they are not visible from outside.

In the photo below is the top of one of the kivas still used for ceremonies.  The kivas are dug into the ground, so their roofs become plazas for daily activities.  

The kiva below has not been restored.  All the ones we saw were round.

The bench, which circles the room, supports wooden posts that support the roof beams and roof.  Every kiva has a ventilation duct that exits above ground.  In front of the ventilation duct is a stone that sits on the floor of the kiva, and serves to deflect the air as it enters from the duct, making it circulate throughout the room.  In front of the deflection stone is a fire pit.  Without the deflection stone, the air would blow directly on the fire and spread embers about the room. 

Here are a few more photos of the Spruce Tree House:
    

 

The largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde NP is known as the Cliff Palace.  It can be visited only with a timed tour led by a park ranger.  We viewed it from across the canyon, and Lee took several photographs with his telephoto camera lens.

  

 

That's it for now.  The next post will be about Arches National Park near Moab, Utah.