A Look Into The Lives Of The Ancient Ones

It's hard to believe it's been exactly a month since we left Alaska and headed south. Our days have been full. We've experienced much in a short amount of time. Since we're so far behind on blogging and don't have time to catch it all up at once, we're going to jump ahead to this week's travels to Mesa Verde National Park, in S.W. Colorado. 

After spending a glorious five days hiking and exploring the area around Moab, it was a travel day for us. By the time we arrived in Cortez, CO and parked the fifth wheel we only had a half day for Mesa Verde.

We stopped into the visitor center first, and discovered that several of the sights had either been closed for winter, or were in the process of archeological explorations and closed to the public. The quick thinking park attendant that helped us told us if we hurried up the mountain,  which would take an hour, we could catch one of the park's most challenging tours. Then she marked a few sights on a map that would give us our best bang for the timing buck and sent us on our way to Balcony House.

Mesa Verde was home to the Ancient Pueblo People, formerly known as the Anasazi's. Archeological findings show they lived there as early as 550AD in pit houses, and later migrated to cliff dwellings, around 1100AD. The sights we visited were cliff dwellings. The particular dwellings we saw were very intact and not visible from the road. Balcony House sits far below the parking lot and it's quite a feat to get there. Our ranger guide gave an excellent and very informative tour. After winding down a hundred or so steep stairs and a long pathway we climbed a 32 step log ladder up into Balcony House.....

This is the ladder we climbed up to get into the dwelling.

Their round structures are called Kivas. These would have been used as personal spaces for families. At the time The People were residing here, the kivas were covered with juniper wood ceilings. Throughout time they eventually collapsed, leaving the kivas open. The tiny hole you see in the floor of the kiva is called a sipapu. Every kiva had one and it's sort of a spiritual symbol. The People believed they came from a previous world which was underground and the hole was representative of that "rebirth" into this world. Some believed they could travel between the two worlds. 

This is an overview of the common area of Balcony House, with two kivas toward the front of the photo. Within the structures, no railings have been installed by the park service (which is cool). The only protection from falling is some rock half walls the Ancient Ones built to keep their children safe. In many places the floor just ended at the edge of the cliff.

This is where the people ground their grains and prepared meals. Behind that back wall, water seeped in through the rock, giving The People a supply within their home.

They didn't make it easy to get in or out of their home. We had to crawl through a tunnel to get back out. The opening was only about 16 inches wide for the first few feet. 

Once through the tunnel we had to climb two ladders back to the top of the cliff. Of course the Ancient Ones didn't have ladders. They used small hand and foot holds carved into the rock. The ladders are new. Installed by the park service for us less agile folks.

Between the two ladders we climbed to get out, there was a very narrow path carved along the edge of the rock. It's got to be at least 500 feet down to the canyon bottom. We were happy for the chain and fence! You can see the folks still waiting to climb the ladder.

After finishing our tour, we took off on our own and hiked a trail about a half mile away from there that gave us an overlook back at Balcony House. Both photos are zoomed in as best we could get them from such a great distance. It's pretty easy to see why The People considered themselves pretty safe from enemies here.

Our second cliff dwelling to check out was called Spruce Tree House, which required just a half mile hike downhill, to what is considered the most preserved of all the dwellings within the park. Archeological digs are still taking place there, but they believe there were about 90 rooms within Spruce Tree House. We were not allowed to go into the main structure but were able to go down into one of the kivas, which is still preserved with a juniper wood roof.

Spruce Tree House, though built on the cliff, sits a ways back off the cliffs edge. This doesn't seem nearly as dangerous as Balcony House for walking around.

This is the inside of a kiva.

As primitive as we might imagine the people would have been that long ago, a lot of sophisticated ideas went into the planning and designing of these cliff dwellings.  As spread out as the structures are across the mesa (some many miles apart) each was built on the water table in the cliffs. Water would seep in through cracks in the rocks and provide the needed resource without having to leave their homes to find it. Each kiva was built in a keyhole shape, with the cutout facing the south. And each was designed to meet the needs of the communities they housed.

Stepping into these dwellings gave us just a glimpse of what genius it would have taken to construct such elaborate homes in the sides of the cliffs. It was a privilege to see it, even for a short amount of time.