Day 2: Mesa Verde
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Mesa Verde is simply amazing. There are at least 11 cliff dwellings that you can see; Five that you can tour. The cliff dwelling above is called Square Tower House. The dwelling we toured is called Spruce Tree House, and it was the only dwelling open to visitors. The other cliff dwellings are open to tours later in the year, when the summer tourist season hits full swing. These cliff dwellings were built by the Anasazi (now supposedly called Ancestral Puebloans by the politically correct) around the 12th century. The Anasazi left no written records, so archeologists have to guess why they came, built such structures, and why they left, but they seem to have alternated from living on top of the mesa to living in cliff dwellings, to eventually leaving, maybe from drought and an exhausted food supply. However, I’m sad to have been weaned on Indians living in tepees instead of in houses like this or like the ones in Central America.
Spruce Tree House
Me climbing into a kiva (ceremonial room)
An unrestored kiva
An Anasazi KitchenAid (grind that corn!)
