Mesa Verde

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a travel day. We started out the morning with blue skies and sun but by the time we had eaten, packed up and dumped the tanks it had clouded over and we could see dark skies in the direction we were heading.

We were travelling back towards Telluride and south on Hwy 145. While we did have a mountain pass to go through, the road was much better for travelling than the Million Dollar Highway! We did experience not only some heavy rain (probably the most we’ve had this trip), but also less than a minute of hail. At one point it looked like they had actually had a bit of snow that we could see along the edge of the road.

Finally we got out of the rain and started looking for our campsite for the night. We had reserved at a private campground with only 5 sites. It was on a private farm with no hookups but right along the river. They had no other campers so we have the place to ourselves. The farm house and barn are across the highway. We pulled into the lane towards the campground and went to look things over. Then a woman came from the farm driving her four-wheeler. She introduced herself as Jeanie. She said her husband is 95 and she is 88. This is the farm he was raised on and lived on all his life. She sure gets around for her age!

Along the River RV Campground Site 2

This morning our trip takes us to another national park. Mesa Verde was established on 1906 as the only national park created to preserve Ancestral Pueblo culture and prehistoric architecture. These people made their home for over 750 yrs from AD. 550 to AD. 1300.

Throughout the park there are nearly 5000 known archeological sites. There are 3 different periods of inhabitants. The first started farming and basket weaving living in pit structures. The middle had deeper structures or kivas like we saw at Chimney Rock. The final period they began to inhabit the sandstone alcoves in cliff dwellings. Nearly 600 cliff dwellings have been recorded.

Mesa Verde has been home to many fires over the last years. From Park Point Fire Tower, at an elevation of 8572’, park staff monitored for forest fires. From here, they had a 360 degree view of the park and surrounding area including the Four Corners where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah states meet.

Our next stop was at the museum where there were multiple exhibits of artifacts that have been found over the years in the park. Different periods of clay pots, baskets, tools, and food including beans and corn are shown along with lots of information about them.

The yucca plant provided much of the material for ropes and cords.

At several spots along the Mesa Top Loop were some examples of the pit houses. This was from the time period around AD. 600 and are the oldest structures here.

The next time period saw kivas, closer to 950 AD. They had more stone walls with a lattice like wooden roof.

The final era was the cliff dwellers around AD. 1200.We were able to see quite a few of these dwellings. There are some Ranger-led hikes into them but they are booked in advance and may involve ladders or small spaces – not for Joyce!

Our final stop of the day was at the Sun Temple. Built above ground in about AD. 1250, with 4’ thick walls, it was likely a communal gathering place. Archeologists excavated 24 rooms of various sizes as well as 3 circular structures inside and one circular structure outside. There were no roof beams or household goods found in it.

We saw a lot at Mesa Verde without having to do a lot of hiking. We didn’t get to one small loop of the Mesa Top Loop and the complete Wetherill Mesa was closed due to construction. However we had a perfect day for weather and we learned a lot about the Ancestral Puebloans.