We visit the AMAZING Mesa Verde

Trip Start Apr 18, 2007
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Trip End Oct 16, 2007


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Flag of United States  , Colorado,
Saturday, August 18, 2007

Lazy start to the day after a good nights sleep - we got good coffee and cinnamon bun in the lobby and headed off west on 160 to Mesa Verde in sunny weather and (as usual excellent pine mountain scenery). We reached the turn for the National Park and drove this road up the mountain somewhat like the east entrance to Yosemite (i.e. a road cut into the side of the mountain). Rounding a bend just before Knifes Edge you come across this aeroplane-like view of Montezuma Valley which is HUGE - it was breath-taking.

We drove onto the Visitors Centre which with the heat and altitude had us panting as we walked under the roadway to the info building where we got tickets for the Cliff Palace tour. We drove onto the Spruce Tree centre and took an excellent salad meal in the restaurant there - we can recommend it. There was a short drive down to Cliff Palace. We walked down to the observation platform which over-looks the Cliff Palace not expecting what we saw which was AMAZING. It was like something out of Indiana Jones - this mud/rock fort right under a huge cave formed by an overhang of the cliff.

We were taken on a tour with about 50 others by Sara - you have to follow these steps thru narrow clefts between boulders. We were given a talk further down looking at the buildings. The Pueblo Indians lived in the valley and a few of them moved up the gorge to live in these caves high up the cliffs. They created hand/foot-holds in the rock and were able to scamper up to the cliffs. It was a survival life rather than a pleasant existence - seems they lived here from 1200AD to 1280AD and had all left by 1300AD. They climbed up to the flat land at the top of the Mesa and grew especially adapted corn that could be planted and harvested in 4 months. There was no river so water was obtained from springs that occur where the water filtering thru the sandstone reaches an impervious shale layer. The nearest water for the Cliff Palace people was 400 ft down the cliff, half a mile down the gorge and then up another canyon. They had to carry the water back using forehead bands to allow them free-use of their hands as they scaled the mountain.

It is a mystical place - more like a film set that a real-life town. We finished the tour by climbing up a series of wooden ladders leaving us out of breath. We took in another self-guided tour of Spruce House - again amazing.

Uneventful drive back thru wonderful scenery and an EXCELLENT meal in "Seasons of Durango" on Main Street which we rate as equal-best meal of the whole trip. We had steak and if was spectacular and not rushed. We were served by Dominique who's spent some time Czechoslovakia over the summer and understood the Continental approach to evening meals. If you're in Durango you must go to this restaurant.
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