So how did they build those things anyway?

  Cortez, Colorado, United States
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The next morning we were up early for our drive to Long House. The main road into the park snakes back and forth through numerous switchbacks and a tunnel to get to the top of Chapin Mesa and then forks at the visitors center to go to Wetherill Mesa. The road to Wetherill has numerous steep climbs and constantly turns back and forth on itself on the way out to Long House. The road is restricted to vehicles of less than 8000 pounds, but several of the Rent-America RVs were attempting to creep up the steep grades. The road is closed from Labor Day until Memorial Day and I can see why. We parked at the end of the road and then waited for our tour group to leave. Access to the site is controlled by only allowing trams to take visitors down to the entry point. We were ferried down to the trailhead and the ranger gave us some of the background of site and warnings about not touching or climbing on the walls of the pueblo.

Long House 1

We then hike down a long hill, came around a bend, and there was the pueblo. The ranger talked about life of the pueblo in terms of water and fire. Since the pueblo is perched high in the cliffs, water was always at a premium. To expend water to irrigate crops or in the form of sweat to construct the pueblo, was always an investment. Likewise, since firewood had to be carried down from the mesa above, the use of fire also had to be justified. The pueblo had been discovered in the 1880s by cowboys looking for lost cattle. Since then, it has been the site of extensive archaeological excavation and preservation. Most of the walls and chambers are as they were found. Long House is the second largest of the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde and contains many kivas as well as a large dance area. It was thought that the pueblo housed as many as 120 people. As I mentioned, access to the pueblo is down a steep trail cut into the side of the mesa, but then you need to climb ladders to get in, not one of Deb's favorite activities!

Another ^&#%%@ Ladder

Long House 2

Finally some sun

Long House Overlook

 
After touring the pueblo, we had to reverse our course and climb back up to the trailhead to wait for the tram. We stopped at an overlook where Long House could be seen in it's entirety. We rode back to the car and then began the drive back across Wetherill Mesa and on to the site of the Cliff Palace tour. The Cliff Palace tour started like the tour of Long House, with a steep climb down to the pueblo.

Cliff Palace Panorama

Where we hiked down from

Cliff Palace is the largest in Mesa Verde and was thought to house as many as 160 people at its peak. Cliff Palace was partially reconstructed by the CCC in the 1930s and is about 75% original. The hike out of Cliff Palace had two features that did not endear themselves to Deb. First is an irregular staircase cut up through a thin channel carved in the rock. When you reach the top, you then had to ascend three ten foot ladders, with the last rising up an exposed rock face, 100 foot in the air. Deb's acrophobia was in full swing!
 
We safely made it to the top and then drove back to Spruce Tree House near the museum.

Spruce Tree House

We again climbed down into the canyon and toured the pueblo. There were teams of archaeologists working on the structure, injecting gelatin behind some of the mud in the walls to help stabilize it. It seemed a very tedious process. After talking with them, we hiked back to the top of the canyon and returned home for another dinner at Tequila's.