Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Once arriving at Mesa Verde I visited the LEED Platinum visitor center to learn about the park since I didn't know anything about it. I learned that it is home to Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. There are three dwellings that you have to purchase a ticket for the tour (Long House, Cliff Palace, and Balcony House). I chose to do a tour of Balcony House because it said it was the most adventurous. But first I drove through the park stopping at the sites. 

Ruins of a pit house

Before the people moved into cliff dwellings they lived in pit houses and then in above ground houses. There are 4000 ruins in the park, 600 of them are cliff dwellings. The people left the cliff dwellings in A.D. 1300.

Cliff Palace

I love cliff dwellings- they are extremely impressive to me, to think of how they were able to get into the alcoves and build their shelter. From far away they resemble sand castles, but a closer look shows detailed masonry that has lasted to this day! The arid environment helps to preserve it. 

Up close view of Cliff Palace

You could see many cliff dwelling ruins in alcoves on the other side of the canyon

My tour of Balcony House was led by a ranger accompanied with about 40 other people. We first hiked down into the canyon on a paved path. Then we climbed a ladder up into the dwelling. 

Inside the dwelling

remains of a balcony-all original materials

View of the canyon from the cliff dwelling

One of two unroofed kivas

Then we exited the cliff dwelling through a small tunnel, the people's only entrance to the dwelling. 

Small tunnel entrance

More ladder climbing

Then I went to Spruce Tree House, another cliff dwelling. 

The park service had put an authentic roof on a kiva at this dwelling so people could descend down into the kiva and see what it would have been like to be in one. The kiva is a ceremonial room and gathering place.

descending down into a kiva

down in the subterranean kiva

Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling

After an informational experience at Mesa Verde I camped right outside the park and departed the next day. I chose to go a little out of the way back to Flagstaff by driving through Monument Valley. Just miles from the 4 corners on the Ute reservation, my car started to make a bad noise. I briefly panicked, out in the middle of nowhere, no cell service, how am I going to get back to Flagstaff. So after looking around and under my car, I couldn't see anything messed up so I decided to continue on to the next town 34 miles away and go from there. I noticed driving fast made the sound not so bad as driving at a slower rate. So I made the call to just drive the remaining 200 miles back to Flagstaff. Therefore, I didn't enjoy Monument Valley as much as I could since I was stressed out about my car. 

Monument Valley

I made it back to Flagstaff and had my car fixed- it was my wheel bearing, again (just had it replaced 3 weeks ago). So overall, a great trip! Just wish it could have been longer and no car trouble!