Mesa Verde - A Trip To The Past - Part 2

Continuing on our drive on the Mesa Top Loop road, we finally came to what we had come for. Cliff dwellings!

We stopped at Sun Point View and there they were, at least five ruins in the canyon wall. As you will see in the pictures, some were well preserved and others have deteriorated. After taking in the view here we drove on to Sun Temple and that's where we got our first view of the Cliff Palace - Wow! Cliff Palace is the "prize" of all the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. I believe it is also the largest, but don't quote me on that. I read somewhere in the park that there are many, many cliff dwellings that the public don't have access to, I'm sure because of accessibility. Anyway, after taking pictures of Cliff Palace and just admiring the views, we decided we were hungry and drove to Spruce Tree House where there was a snack bar.

Arriving at the parking lot for Spruce Tree House, I grabbed the first empty parking spot I could find and we went to the museum and watched a film on the park and it's past inhabitants. Then we walked to see Spruce Tree House, took more pictures and went off in search for food! We finally found. We finally found the snack bar and were walking up the steps to go in and out the door comes our friend, Jan, whom we had been camping with last week. Then we spotted Wes, sitting on the patio with their friends. Nice surprise! We got a snack and sat with them and visited for awhile. I knew that they were in the park, but because of no cell phone service, couldn't get in touch with them. After bidding them farewell again, we took off to drive Cliff Palace Loop.

This loop takes you to Cliff Palace and if you have a tour ticket you get to walk down about 100 steep steps to the cliff dwelling. We opted not to tour, but there is a outcropping where you can see Cliff Palace from above. Remember, the first place we saw it was across the canyon on Mesa Top Loop. You can see the Cliff Palace really well from there and you also get great views of the canyon. It also gives you a better sense of just how steep the walls of the canyon are and how hard it must of been for them to get to the top to do their farming.

I guess because of the lifestyle we live today, it's so hard to imagine living back then. All their crops were grown on the top of the mesa and believe me, it's a long climb up. They reached their fields on the top of the mesa by a hand-and-toe-hold trail pecked into the canyon walls, but I have to wonder how many lost footing and fell to their death?

We also passed a area that had been burned in a 2000 fire - acres and acres of burnt trees, so sad to see. I don't know if the fire was due to nature or man, but it sure drives home the fact that it does take many years before things return to normal, if ever! I have a picture of this area posted as well.

We began our 20 mile + drive back to the entrance to begin our drive back to Farmington. The only wild life we saw today where some wild horses and I did get a picture of one of them.

It was a beautiful drive coming back home since it was later in the day and the sun was beginning to set about the time we got to Shiprock, NM. We had a long but great day and returned home very tired. It was really great running into our friends, Wes & Jan again.

Life is good!