8/17/2014 0 Comments From August 13 - 15 #Gr8USrdTrp
After that, we replenished some supplies, then made our way over to Mesa Verde, where the Anasazi cliff dwellings were carved into the cliffs over 1,000 years ago. Oh my, what a dream come true to see those! I’ve always wanted to visit them. Yet in all my years of wanting to go there, I always imagined it different. I had just assumed that one could see them from the bottom of a canyon, or a road drove by that would let us look up and see them. No, not the case. One must be on TOP of the mesa in order to see these cliff dwellings. Practically as scary as the Grand Canyon. I drove up that mountain, which was the only way I could handle the heights, and made it nearly the whole way before I had to stop in order to calm my nerves. The park there has done a good job of making the entire experience very educational though. We didn’t just go look and see, then go home. They have a Mesa Top Loop that you drive through. There are ten or so different stops along that loop, each one is a spot where an excavation had found some Anasazi village remains. We learned about Pithouses, Kivas, and sun temples, all on little flat patches, covered with pinyon trees and small bushes. The ground is a spongy, springy type of reddish loam, very comfortable to walk on, actually. I wanted to see the cliff dwellings though – so while the villages on top of the mesa are truly fascinating, I was very excited to finally see one of the complexes carved into the cliff face. Thing is, in order to see them you are perched on a ledge (yes, with a good fence) and pointed across a canyon to them. They are quite easily seen, plus there are binoculars stationed at each ledge to get a real closeup view. They don’t picture all that well from that distance though, at least not most of them. A couple are actually very close, and you can see them very clearly without the binoculars.
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Chamblee FamilyYes, all eight of us, in a Chevy Tahoe, driving across the country in an epic search for history, adventure, and a little bit more leg space in the back seat. Archives
October 2014
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