Day 69: In the afternoon that we arrived in Mesa Verde National Park, we took a short hike on an interpretive trail that in 1914 was a precarious section of the main road into the park (later replaced with a newer road with a tunnel). Signposts and a pamphlet identified several of the native plants. The conspicuous yellow blossoms of the rabbitbrush shrubs were in full bloom.
The evening ranger program discussed competing theories of how humans immigrated into the New World (Bering land bridge and ice-free corridor, coastal migration by boat following the resources of the kelp beds, and trans-oceanic voyages from Polynesia).
Day 70: The Ancestral Puebloans of Mesa Verde originally lived on the mesa tops where they farmed, but around 1200 they started building impressive cliff dwellings below the mesa rims in large natural alcoves. We took a ranger-led walking tour through the Long House ruin and a self-guided tour of the Step House ruin, which are prime examples of the cliff dwellings. These were multi-level complexes built of sandstone blocks and mortar, consisting of living quarters, storage rooms, and kivas. The kivas were round subterranean rooms that appear to have been used for social as well as religious gatherings.
On a self-guided tour of Badger House Community we saw examples of stages in the evolution from simple pit houses to clusters of sandstone and mortar houses and kivas that were built on top of the mesa before they built cliff dwellings below the rim. The evening ranger program discussed trade connections of the Mesa Verdean people with three other New World cultures around the year 1200: coastal Californian, Mayan, and Mississipian.
Day 71: We spent this day in the Chapin Mesa section of the park, including ranger-led tours of the Cliff Palace and Balcony House ruins, perusing the archaeological museum, a self-guided tour of the Spruce House ruin, and a hike around the Petroglyph Point trail. Each tour gave us more insight into how the Ancestral Puebloans thrived in this challenging climate and environment, so we were glad we went on all three tours.
Today, tourists hike to the ruins on trails and ladders built by the Park Service and the CCC, but in 1200 the only access was by extremely steep and narrow trails that in many places were no more than small hand and toe holds chiseled into the steep sandstone cliffs.
The museum has many artifacts recovered by archeological excavations and a set of exquisite dioramas painstakingly crafted by CCC artists depicting life at Mesa Verde from the nomadic hunter-gatherer times to the 1200s.
Amazing to see these dwellings!