Gwilliam Gazette : Mesa Verde

We finally did it! We finally made it to Mesa Verde!

Ever since I was a teenager, I saw pics of cliff dwellings. When we moved back to Utah almost three years ago, I realized they were not that far away - in Colorado and only 6 hours from here. Ever since then, it's been a top thing to do for us, but the schedule never worked out. Mesa Verde has a short season because of the elevation - between 7500 and 8500 feet - there is snow or it's cold 6 months out of the year.

Well, we did it finally! This post will have a lot of pics, and they don't even come close to capturing how it really looked, but you will get the idea.

We were so excited that Marissa/Matt and Meghan/Corey/Jane were coming along too! Corey gave our family a new title - "The Family that goes and does stuff"! And it's pretty accurate.

So, being the family that goes and does stuff, of course we couldn't just go and drive there and back...we had to go do stuff too!

On the way down, we stopped just outside of the city of Green River (Utah) to a place hardly anyone has been to or even knows exists, down a 6 mile dirt road, in the middle of the Utah Green River Launch Complex. The Launch Complex was Cold War military annex of the White Sands Missile Range. At the Utah Complex, missiles were stored in buildings (a few of which are still there and they look like big barns) and missiles were launched from here for testing and landed in White Sands, New Mexico. From 1964 to 1975 there were 244 missiles launched from here. This area was also called the "New Area 51". We only drove by, but next time we go to Moab, we just might stop more and explore.

The Crystal Geyser. It is the only cold-water carbon dioxide geyser in the United States. This means geo-thermal activity does not play a part in the geyser. The ground water here has significant amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide and there are substantial underground gas accumulations which come together to form the geyser. This geyser was created when oil wells were being drilled in the area.

This geyser used to shoot up to 130 feet, for about 90 minutes at a time during the day. Around 10 years ago however, people started to throw rocks down the geyser to try and trigger an "eruption" and over the years, the rocks have clogged the water coming out. Now, it just "bubbles". But the landscape around is stained with bright colors from the carbon dioxide deposits and looks amazing!

VIDEOS:

Next stop was the Poison Spider Dinosaur Tracksite - not sure how it got named, but I'm guessing someone was exploring and got bit (and probably died) by a poison spider.

Anyhow, it's a short drive off the highway where two types of dinosaur "footprints" can be seen - one type is a depression, the kind you would normally associate with a print, and the other is the opposite - where the print bulges outward.

The rock walls were amazing in this area - straight up and LOTS of rock climbers right along the road

The road was spectacular with the huge cliff face on one side, and the river on the other.

We stopped along the road to make sure we were going to the right direction. And right exactly where we stopped, we saw some Indian Writings (as they are now called).

We were going the right direction and were only 1 mile away.

The dino track site was up a rocky and pretty much trail-less area.

It was up there!

Do you see the trail? Yeah, neither did we. The sign just says UP pretty much.

Towards the top we found it. There are huge slabs of rock that actually fell from the cliffs above and when they landed they landed facing up so you can see the tracks.

This is the one where the prints are bulging outwards - could have been mud that squished out and then petrified or something like that

This big cracked rock was right above us - looking like it was ready to fall any century now!

Farther up, more Indian Writings - and lots of them!

A few more dino tracks

Another cracked rock - looks like a chimney

On our way back down

We then continued our way to Cortez, Colorado, just outside Mesa Verde National Park where our hotel was.

The next day was Saturday and we got up early to get to the visitors center to get tickets - you have to get tickets to three of the cliff dwellings as the tour is ranger led, and the tickets cannot be reserved ahead of time or online. Being Memorial Day holiday, we got there not long after they opened and were VERY surprised to see all morning tours and even most on Sunday were already sold out! Well, that changed our plans a little and luckily, we had planned on staying 3 nights but were planning on spending 1 day at Arches National Park on the way back. We decided Arches would be crazy busy and since it's only 3 hours from home, we spend the extra day here and things worked out great. We got the tours we wanted for Saturday afternoon and Monday morning.

The actual part of the park you see, is an hour from the visitor center, so it's not like you can just show up and walk around. You have to have a game plan...and there are two parts of the park...both an hour in and an hour apart from each other.

The people who lived in Mesa Verde are referred to as the 'Ancestral Pueblo People' and settled in Mesa Verde about 550 AD. They were heavy farmers and grew lots of crops like corn, beans and squash. The tops of the mesa received a lot of rain because of the high elevation, and was home to plentiful wild animals and plants to help them survive. Their homes at this time were mainly pit houses which were very simple "pits" but contained a roof and air ventilation.

About 750 AD some of the people began to build houses above ground with upright walls and larger. The pit houses then evolved into "Kivas" which were used for gatherings and possibly ceremonies. Kiva's during this time period were always round, underground and had a roof and built in nearly every village or homesite. Entry was by a ladder through a hole in the roof. In modern Pueblo communities, the Kiva is still an important ceremonial structure.

By 1000 AD architectural skills advanced to stone masonry with thick stone walls, often 2-3 stories high and joined as units of 50 rooms or more. Farming became bigger and much of the mesa-top land was cleared for agriculture.

Between 1150 and 1300, thousands of people lived on Mesa Verde. In fact, more lived then, than do currently in the surrounding areas.

The people moved into the cliff dwellings around 1200 and some contained up to 150 rooms. Builders fit the structures to the available space in the alcove. All cliff dwellings are built under natural alcoves - nothing was carved out.

There are NO rivers or other water sources in Mesa Verde, but there are 'seep springs' that are common in all the alcoves. The people relied on these seep springs to provide water for them - water was a precious commodity and each drop was saved. They also built 'check dams' and reservoirs to hold rain water.

It was hard work building the cliff dwellings - hauling rocks up from the valley below.....making clay out of precious water for the walls - it's estimated it would take years to complete a larger dwelling.

The Ancestral Pueblo people only lived in the cliff dwellings for about 100 years. By about 1300, Mesa Verde was deserted. It is not known why they all left - but they migrated south into New Mexico and Arizona.

The reason most likely is not due to drought, as they've survived many drought periods. Maybe after hundreds of years of intensive use of the land, the soils were depleted....animals depleted. Perhaps there were social and political problems and they just looked for new opportunities somewhere else. We don't know. They spent a lot of years and so much hard work to build the cliff dwellings and only lived there 100 years. But they did leave behind amazing history for us to visit.

Ok....enough of text..let's get to the pics.

One of the kivas

Huge reservoir that would have had to been cleared and dug out by hand. It was placed in a low spot where rain run off gathered.

First glimpse of one of the cliff dwellings. This is what we came to see! It's so amazing how they built these in the alcoves of the sandstone rock

The 'Pithouses' weren't really much to see....a small circle dug out..no walls. These were the first houses here

View of the valley below

Square Tower House - this tower is the tallest structure in the park - it's 4 stories tall

We brought a picnic each day...Not sure why Shelley and Marissa are making funny faces

Balcony House was our first dwelling tour. Balcony house is the most strenuous of the tours, having several ladders, one 4 stories tall, and some tunnels and some rock climbing. It was AMAZING!!

Our first look at the biggest ladder - this one's 4 stories tall and it's a double ladder, so two people go up at once. It was STEEP and on the side of the cliff. It was a little nerve racking at the top.

Corey, Meghan and Jane almost to the top!

Through a little rock tunnel and up another ladder.

This was called the Balcony House because it had these balconies made out of wood with pine needles in the middle to hold everything together. No other dwelling had such advanced and many balconies as this one

Notice the balcony in the middle of the wall. It was thought the balconies were used to access the 2nd story rooms.

One of MANY kivas at Balcony House

Up some more ladders

Through a 40 foot hole we had to literally crawl through

To get out, we had to literally climb up the side of the cliff - where foot holds were carved into the cliffside. This was steep, scary, amazing and a little strenuous. Of course, they didn't have the chains and fence when this was built!

This tour is NOT for the claustrophobic or scared of heights. This is how the tour is described: "Most adventurous tour. Climb double ladder, crawl through 18 inch wide tunnel, climb up a 60-foot open cliff face with stone steps and 2 ladders to exit. They weren't kidding!

Short ladder, but on a complete cliff side. If you fell, you're going all the way to the bottom

Our 2nd dwelling - first view of Cliff Palace. This is Mesa Verde's largest dwelling.

Wow. What a day we had! It was so amazing - much more than I ever thought it would be! Each of the dwellings we went to today were just right off the road and maybe 1/4 mile hike to get to, but we were tired from going all day.

The next day, Sunday, we had planned on going to the other side of the park, but the tickets were all sold out. We found a lake and forest in nearby Durango (about 45 mins away) and found a 3 mile loop hike through the forest. It was a great hike and way to spend the day.

Monday, we head off to the other side of the park, to tour Long House which is the most in depth tour. Where the other tours were about an hour long, the Long House tour is double that, and it includes a mile hike to get to the site. The Long House tour are smaller groups and more interaction with the site, with the ability to spend more time at the site looking around.

The views on the drive were amazing

This dwelling was in fact, very long - it was huge site

The green growth even today, is a sign of water - the seep springs. The holes were dug so if the water filled up the first hold, it would run off to the 2nd, and so forth - not a drop of water was wasted

Three of about 70 kivas at this site

On the hike to the site, this "check dam" was pointed out to us - one of hundreds that would keep and direct runoff water to reservoirs

70% of the park has burned over the past 15 years from lightning. This part was the most recent.

VIDEOS:

One of the big reservoirs:

Square Tower House:

Spruce House:

Cliff Palace:

Long House:

Early Monday afternoon, we started to head back to home. We had just one more stop - and that is Newspaper Rock, just outside Monticello, Utah.

Newspaper Rock is a rock panel with one of the largest known collection of petroglyphs in one place. The 200 square foot rock has over 650 designs that were made over 2000 years ago.