Mesa Verde National Park!
We headed out this morning towards the Four Corners where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. The Four Corners Monument is the only place in the United States where four states share the same border and simply makes for a photo op. We took our turns and captured pictures of us being in 6 places at the same time (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Navajo Nation, and Ute Nation). On to Cortez, Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park!
Upon arrival at the Mesa Verde visitor center we ate our picnic lunch of PB&J’s and talked to the rangers to figure out what guided tours we should take. Mesa Verde National Park contains cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people and two of the cliff dwellings requires a $4 fee and set tour time with park ranger. The Balcony House requires tourists to crawl through a small tunnel about 18 inches wide and 2 feet tall. We decided to forgo that one and instead take a tour of the Cliff Palace dwelling. Our tour time was set for 5:00. We had about 2 1/2 hours to explore other areas of the park and it took about an hour drive to get to the side of the park with the cliff dwellings. I drove the very curvy roads and switchbacks in the park. We stopped at the highest point of the mesa and had spectacular views of the mountains and mesas.
We took a self-guided tour of the Spruce Tree House. Although you can’t walk through the dwelling itself, there was a restored kiva we could enter. Kiva comes from the Hopi language and is used in Mesa verde to refer to round chambers, usually underground, built in or near almost ervery village or homesite. They were likely used for combined religous, social, and utilitarian purposes. Entry was by ladder through a hole in the center of the roof.
At the museum we watched a 25 minute video on the history of the cliff dwellings. As soon as the movie ended it was time for our tour of Cliff Palace. The group was much bigger than I expected for this type of tour. The Park Ranger’s name was Beth, so our Beth found this to be special. On this tour we still weren’t allowed to enter the dwelling itself as the oils on our hands damage the sandstone. At the end of the tour we had to climb up 3 ladders through a tight space up the mesa. As we were climbing Jen made the comment that either something had died in the spot or somebody farted. Sean replied with a giggle, “That was me.” Thanks Sean for that memory. My eyes are still watering.
After the tour we drove through a couple of more loops in the park and headed back down the mesa for the hour drive to exit the park. We had an “early” dinner at 8:00 at a local Mexican restaurant. Tom W. ordered a verdes chile something or another meal and after the waiter smirked and laughed when Tom asked how spicy it was, decided to get the camarone verdes instead. The waiter really had us laughing at his reaction to the question of “How spicey is it?”. When the meal came out the waiter had brought a sample of the green sauce that Tom would have gotten if he would have sticked with his original choice. Personally I didn’t think it was all that spicey and Tom agreed. Oh well, still made for a good laugh.
We got to the hotel around 9:00 where the kids got to go swimming in the outdoor pool and Jen and I went to the nearby WalMart (Another WalMart near our hotel. Imagine that. Where was that in Arizona?) Another great full day. Tomorrow the alarm is set for 6:00a.m.
