Southern Utah Trip - Day 5 (Wednesday, May 23, 2001)
- Mesa Verde -
We arrived at the Far View Visitor Center soon after it opened and immediately bought tickets for tours of the ruins known as Balcony House and Cliff Palace. We then made it to the parking lot for Balcony House and waited for the tour to begin. After the ranger showed up and gave us an introduction as well as what to expect, we descended down stairs and a walkway. We stopped at an alcove just before a ladder where the ranger explained to us how the alcove got created and showed how it was eroding in chunks. He noted the seep spring dampening the rock. Springs like that were the source of water for the community that lived here.
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| Our our group climbs from the exit of Balcony House. (Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado) |
Pretty soon, we were climbing a ladder to get into the ruin itself, then stopped in the North Plaza by a balustrade protecting us from going over the cliff. The ranger told us how the Ancestral Pueblan people lived as he pointed out clues as to how the place was built and remodeled. I felt he was quite knowledgeable about the theories concerning these people.
Crawling up a short ladder and widened hand and toe holds, we made our way into the Kiva Plaza. Here, the ranger explained how the kiva was instructed and its use as a ceremonial chamber. A little hole on the floor of the chamber known as a sipapu symbolized the entrance the people made coming into this world from the earth. We started running over the tour time as the ranger answered many of the interesting questions posed by the small tour group. He wished we had more time to talk, but we all had to go.
To exit the structure, we lined up to crawl through a short tunnel. At the end of that, we then had to climb a long ladder, then walk steeply up the cliff face, holding on to chains. It was fun. Another ladder got us finally to the parking lot where we ended the tour.
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| Cliff Palace as seen from the overlook. (Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado) |
With not much time left, we made it in time to the Cliff Palace for our next tour. It started at a great overlook of the ruin, the largest house in the park. Taking our tickets, the ranger led our big group down the pathway to the base of the ruin. She talked about many of the things I heard on the previous tour, so I mostly concentrated on studying the surrounding ruins.
I did listen enough to learn how the ruin was discovered and how the natives constructed it. We walked up to the original timbers, where she pointed out white plugs where archeologists pulled out samples to date the house back to the thirteenth century. She then led us up to stand around a kiva where she explained its function and design. After the talk, we waited in line to look inside one of the windows, which had an example of some interior decoration. I noticed a modern ladder inside. At the end of the tour, we walked up rock steps and a short ladder back to the parking lot.
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| The ruins of Far View House. (Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado) |
Back in the car, we drove the loop road and stopped at the overlooks to see across the canyon to the House of Many Windows. Near there, I was surprised to find a Ute gift center and advertisement for the Ute Mountain Casino, then realized that the road barely crossed into the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation. We skipped going there and went to an overlook of Hemenway House. Finally along the loop drive, we stopped to hike a short trail on the mesa leading to a viewpoint of Balcony House as well as Soda Canyon.
We had a shaded picnic lunch on Chapin Mesa then entered the nearby archeological museum to see displays on the interpreted history of the Ancestral Pueblans as well as artifacts recovered at Mesa Verde. A trail from the museum led us down to Spruce Tree House, a large ruin we could explore without a tour, though two rangers were there to keep a watch on the ruin and answer questions. The best thing about Spruce Tree House was that we could enter a kiva with a reconstructed timber roof, descending on a ladder. It was quite cool inside.
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| Northern view from Park Point. (Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado) |
Once we were done looking at that ruin, we took the car on the Mesa Top Loop Drive to see more ruins, including excavated pithouses and pueblo ruins. The interesting cliff dwellings we spotted included Square Tower House, Oak Tree House, Fire Temple, and New Fire House. We also had a cross canyon view of Cliff Palace. The last stop on the loop was the Sun Temple, a big mesa top ruin.
Going back north towards our campground, we stopped at the relatively isolated Cedar Tree Tower ruin and then a large, impressive collection of ruins at Far View. Far View was once a farming community and included Mummy Lake, which most archeologists believe to have been an artificial reservoir. Continuing north, we then stopped at the scenic overlooks, notably Park Point, highest point in the park. It had an impressive full circle view of the area and I could see far off snowy mountains as well as the mesa landscape. Once we got to our campsite, we relaxed, ate dinner and slept.
Contact me if you have any questions or comments about this trip.
| Document last modified January 06, 2009. Copyright © 1995-2009 Andrew Sawadisavi. All rights reserved. |
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