Tuesday (5/26) We are still in Durango.   We spent the day at the Mesa Verde National Park. These mountains were once in inhabited by the Anasazi indians, known today as the  Ancestral Puebloans.  They lived there for approximately 700 years and built elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls.  Farming on the top of the mountain, which they called Mesa Verde or green table, was their major source of food.  

The dwellings are made out of stone and mortar and are comprised of a series of small connected rooms.  They show evidence that they had fires in them to keep warm and that the smaller rooms were used to store food.  It is amazing to think that they were built about 1,400 years ago and today are 70 to 80 percent original.  Life in these cliff dwellings was not easy.  To get to the dwellings, they literally had to climb up or down the side of the mountain. In the late 1200s, they moved away to other communities leaving no trace of the reason why.

We (Rich, Sue, Kim and Kevan) decided that we wanted to see these dwelling first hand.  So we climbed to visit the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House.   The Cliff Palace (see picture) is the largest cliff dwelling and had 129 rooms and eight kivas (religious rooms that are round.)  It is estimated that 60 to 90 persons lived there at any time.  To get to the Cliff Palace we had to climb down and up a number of stairs and a series of ladders that were about eight feet high.  It was a little scary at times but not too bad.

Then on to the Balcony House.  This dwelling is much smaller and is much more difficult to get to.   We had to climb a 32 ft ladder (see picture) that went up the side of the mountain, crawl through a 12 ft long tunnel that is only 18 inches wide, scale a stone pathway that has minimal railing and then climb several more ladders to get out.  A VERY scary route in and out of the cliff dwellings BUT oh so worth it.  

The views from the mountains are so vast and so beautiful that again, I don't have the words to describe them.  It is best to see them for yourself - that way you can be as awe struck as we have been.