Durango in South Western Colorado is an old railway and mining town along the Animas River. Foundered in 1879, it has an attractive Victorian historic centre and is a good base for various activities.
This was our place, with Debbie and Dan, for three nights.
First stop was the Visitor and Reseach centre for the Mesa Verde National Park. These park centres are alway extremely well set up with informative displays and films, so are always worth a visit.
The Top Loop Road on top of the Mesa. This park protects nearly 5000 known archeological sites.
View of the Montezuma Valley from one of the outlooks (as they call them in USA).
The main reason for coming to Mesa Verde are the 13th Century Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and there are around 600 of these in various states of repair. This is Spruce Tree House, a three storied structure tucked away into a cliff niche. It is the parks best preserved dwelling.
It has 138 rooms. This is a kiva courtyard, with a ladder leading underneath. The bottom room was a gathering place in the cold winters and included a kiva fire place.
Another view of Spruce Tree House.
We took a ranger guided tour of the most adventurous cliff dwelling, Balcony House. This is the first of several ladders we had to climb and we also had to crawl through a narrow tunnel. It is 32 feet high (10 metres).
Looking into a kiva on the first level.
Our guide didn't mind balancing on the very edge of the platform and she was a good deal older than we are!
The view was amazing.
Dan climbs the last ladder.
Great, we all made it in one piece.
Indian paintbrush.
A wild flower of some sort.
The tunnel out after a great day.
Looks very interesting
ReplyDeleteLooks very interesting
ReplyDeleteDidn't like the sound of crawling through that tunnel.
ReplyDelete