On the 21st day we visited the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. It was a good
choice in my opinion. We toured the cliff dwellings and imagined what
it would be like to live in them.
This guy was annoying. He kept getting into every picture I was taking.
Him and his life partner were on the same tour as us. He kept calling
his tripod his “pod” and obsessing on whether or not to use his flash.
Every national park we visited had a few of these guys, wearing their
photo journalist/fly fishing vests, thinking they were Ansel Fricking
Adams.
On the tour we learned how the natives used the Yukka plant for a
million uses like rope and sandals,etc. Here Jen desecrates one of the national
park’s plants. Not really.
At this view point we heard what we thought was the cry of an eagle. It
sounded just like in the movies. Jen thought it might have been a hawk
or something.
We toured the Balcony House Dwelling. The ranger talked about how the natives lived.
We had to climb a 32 foot ladder and crawl through some small passages.
They made a big deal about saying how strenuous it was but it was
nothing like the hiking and climbing we have been doing on our trip.
This is a narrow passage we climbed through.
Jen in the passage to show the scale.
This is a shot of one of the dwellings from a distance.
This room was described as one in which ceremonies would take place.
Apparently the indians would climb down in this room and there would be
a fire in the center. We saw several of these rooms and they each had a
system to allow the smoke to escape.
The tour guide described the small hole next to the fire pit as a
“spirit hole”. She said the natives believed their life came from a
level below the earth and the spirit passed through this hole. iWith
all due respect to our Native American brothers and sisters, I surmised
they were real high when they thought that up.
The other dwelling we toured still had the roof on the spirit hole room. This ladder allowed us to climb into it.
A wider shot of the dwelling.
I took a lot of photos. I wasn’t sure which to post.
The area was very pretty although a lot of the trees were burned in a big fire a few years ago.
