I am so glad we made the trip, we were completely blown away by this park and it was really nice to see something a little different from America's history.
As well as being a National Park, Mesa Verde is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it protects ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites. Until this trip, I hadn't heard of the Pueblo people but they were an ancient Native American culture who lived around the Four Corners area of America (Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona). They lived in pit houses (we will see these later in our trip), grand pueblos and cliff-sited dwellings which we could see up close in Mesa Verde.
The Pueblo people lived in Mesa Verde from AD 600 to 1300 and its amazing that the buildings they build back then, are still here today.
We turned up at Mesa Verde National Park and headed straight to the visitors center where we signed up to a ranger guided tour of the Balcony House. We were warned that this was not an easy tour with a number of ladders to climb up, cracks to crawl through and a steep hike up and down the side of the cliff. It was actually not that difficult but huge amounts of fun. There were a number of children on our tour who were in their element acting like Lara Croft and a number of poor parents scared of heights who were struggling to keep a poker face.
Before the tour started, we had a couple of hours to spare so we drove around the scenic loop on top of the mesa, which we later found out through the tour is actually a cuesta as the top is at a slight angle and not flat. The views were stunning and is was great to see the scenery change from desert to lush greenery and then to the massive areas burnt by wild fires.
We stopped off at Long House. We didn't have time to do the Ranger Guided Tour of this house too but we could see from the lookout the impressive structure.
We spent the night in one of the parks campsites. We had planned a lovely evening by the fire but just as we finished the Balcony Tour, a huge storm came in. It was a stressful time trying to get back to the campsite before the rain started as we hadn't bothered to put the fly on and any rain would have soaked the tent and all the contents! Luckily, we made it in time, put the fly on and then retreated to the hotel in the park where there was a restaurant and bar that we could use the wait out the storm. It eventually passed and after a nice dinner, we headed back to the campsite for the night.
The park protects nearly 5,000 archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. We only manged to see 2 of these, this is definitely a place we need to come back to explore!
Great footage driving in and top in car music too, with some stunning scenery.
ReplyDeleteReally sad to see the effect of the wildfires though, don't appreciate the scale of something like this. Some fab views from the highest point.
Long House and the Balcony House tour looked brilliant, I loved all the climbing and crawling around and this must have been so interesting to visit. I chuckled at Lee laughing at Sam crawling through but some stunning views and great early architecture.
Campsite was a bit too brief for my liking, I'd have liked to see your pitch but I imagine that with the storm and your rush to get the Fly on, you had other priorities.
Well worth the trip though and bet you are glad it stayed on the list after some to and fro!
The Long House and Balcony House looked so interesting and the hike was amazing could tell you both enjoyed it very much. Sam was right it was just that bottle that made that gap a bit tight :-) wonderful to think so much of it has remained as it is going back to AD. Dad was wondering what the Pueblo people lived on.
ReplyDeleteAssent tough but very interesting to watch but would have liked to see a little of the descent :-)
When we saw the vast area of the wildfire we could not help but think of all the wildlife that suffered too :-(
You are so often lucky with just beating storms at camp sites and pleased for you.
XX.