Cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park, SW Colorado

For our drive to SW Colorado we chose to go over Lizard Head Pass - a much better choice for our Class A motorhome than taking the Million Dollar Highway. Although the summit is over 10,000 feet elevation it is pleasant road with few switchbacks.

It's always a challenge to choose an RV park for our next destination. I use a variety of websites including RVParkReviews, PassportAmerica, TripAdvisor, and GoodSam. We've been pretty lucky so far and this time was no exception. Elevated and off the main highway we have a beautiful view of the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park. This is a good thing because we're booked for a week. I much prefer a campground setting over a parking lot setting. Although sometimes it's pretty nice staying at a fancy RV Resort!

Afternoon thunderstorms and beautiful sunsets were the norm.

This was Boulder House at Hovenweep National Monument

The walls are three layers deep

At Mesa Verde you can walk around some exhibits and the museum at no extra charge. Our neighbors at the the RV Park told us about a couple of tours to take for a small fee. The first one we took was Balcony House. After descending partially into the canyon we went up a 32' ladder.

That's the ladder looking down.

With 40 rooms Balcony house was considered a medium size cliff dwelling

This group of dwellings are unique in that they have "balcony" areas.

You can see from room to room

Yes, we really were perched along the side of a cliff.

This is their "kiva". The fire pit was built in the center of the room. The door was to allow fresh air in so the smoke would go up through the roof opening. A diverter was built between the door and the fire to keep the incoming air from blowing out the fire. The round hole on the floor were for the spirits to emerge. What is missing is the roof so you can only imagine how smoky it was.

Then we walked between huge rocks and shimmied through a 12 ft long tunnel,

two more ladders,

and a 60 foot open rock face. The Ancestral Pueblo peoples - old and young - climbed up and down the cliffside with small hand and foot holds the size of a potato.

The Ancestral Pueblo people or Anasazi had several communities along the canyon. Our next tour is Cliff Palace which is believed to be the gathering spot for the different resident locations.

With roofs no longer intact you can see the many rooms of Cliff Palace. There is extensive preservation work in effect. Here you can see 5 circular Kiva's of the 23 located here.

Mesa Verde was inhabited for more than 700 years until the year 1300. They lived on the mesa tops until the final 100 years when they built and lived in the cliff dwellings. Researchers know these dates from dendrochronology, a type of carbon dating from the wood used in construction.

We felt like part of a National Geographic publication