We left the San Louis Valley and started a steep climb through some awesome Rocky Mountain scenery, with tall firs, road-side creeks and sheer rock faces with elevations over 9000 feet. Unfortunately, huge swaths of firs were brown and dead. Was it because of acid rain or some invasive disease or insect?
Coming down the mountain through the San Juan National Forest we encountered long, steep grades and some massive runaway truck ramps. We didn’t quite need them, but we had to make an unscheduled stop at a scenic overlook to let our truck brakes cool. If we had remembered to adjust our trailer brakes to take more of the braking load, we might have been fine. But wow, what a view from that overlook! We could see far down below to one of the most picturesque valleys we have ever seen.
We drove through Pagosa Springs, CO which seemed to be a more affluent town with lots of river outfitters and nice shops. It kind of reminded us of a much bigger Highlands, NC. Heading into higher elevations again, we saw some of the local forest fires smoking and the charred hillsides. One of the roads we passed was being shut down to traffic because of a fire. Luckily, we didn’t need to travel that way. The Colorado governor has issued a statewide open fire and fireworks ban because of the extremely dry and windy conditions. It is too hot to have a campfire anyway…
After 220 miles and almost 5 hours, we saw an enormous mesa ahead. Mesa Verde National Park actually straddles several mesas and the canyons between them. After the entrance to the park, switchbacks with awesome views lead 4 miles up the mesa to the Morefield Campground at about 7000 feet.
Early the next morning we started our tours of the ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. Cliff Palace is the largest. We had an engaging tour guide who really gave us insight into the difficult and short life of the ancient Puebloans. They started out around 900 AD as hunter gatherers on the mesa tops above and a few hundred years later moved down into the cliff alcoves and built the amazing dwellings there. The alcoves formed when water seeped through the sandstone cliffs from the mesa above and hit the layer of shale, forcing it to seep horizontally and eventually fracture away parts of the sandstone. They Puebloans built their houses fitted against the walls and ceiling of the alcoves with sandstone blocks and mortar made with sandstone dust, water and urine. They began cultivating corn, squash and beans on the fertile but dry mesa tops and carried their harvests down the steep cliff sides, often vertically with only small “hand and toe hold” gouges in the rock face. Their corn cobs were only about the size of a finger. We owe our giant corn cobs to the Puebloan crop selection and farming skills.
Balcony House was the next dwelling visited. It would have almost been impossible to access without today’s ladders and steps as it is built into a vertical cliff without an obvious entrance. The Puebloans evidently entered with only hand and toe holds, not using ladders or ropes. Some archeologists speculate Balcony House was built as a defensive structure.
Spruce Tree House is the most well-preserved dwelling. It had a complete “kiva” with its roof that we could climb down into. A kiva is a subterranean family room where the Puebloans meet, told stories, slept or wove cloth, etc., and supposedly worshiped. They could stay warmer in winter with a central fire pit and cooler in summer. Kivas have an ingenious design to regulate the internal temperature. Archeologists were still doing digs deep in the rooms of the alcove.
We had to drive to a different mesa in the park to visit the next dwellings. This mesa top and surrounding valleys had a large forest fire in 2000. The ancient pinion pines and junipers were nothing but gray and black skeletons. Only grasses, some very low shrubs and yucca plants had regrown. Supposedly it will take 200-300 years for the area to return to its pre-fire state. Numerous fires have ravaged Mesa Verde NP over the years.
Step House was unique in that it had distinct ruins of two different time periods side by side. Prehistoric steps (we took a modern path) lead down to the 7th century “basket-making” peoples’ pithouses, shallow holes in the ground with elevated wood and mud roofs. Then there were the typical 12th century kivas.
Long House is the longest and 2nd largest dwelling. We had to take a short tram ride. A very knowledgeable ranger led the tour and gave us lots of insights into why the Puebloans left the mesa tops, moved to the cliff dwellings and then suddenly “disappeared”. Actually they moved to the Rio Grande River Valley. The modern Hopi and Navajo are their descendants. There is a lot of debate about why the Puebloans left, including population pressure and resource and water scarcity. The weeping water at the shale layer was still flowing at the back of the alcove. The ranger said it could have produced up to 25 gallons a day. The Puebloans had an ingenious collection method that involved precisely shaped, circular depressions connected by small channels in the sandstone floor. One could collect the water from the dips with matching ladles.
After our tours Ethan was sworn in as a “Junior Ranger”. Supposedly there was a mother black bear and two yearling cubs roaming the campground. Unfortunately, we never saw them. However, mule deer seemed to be everywhere and even walked between the campers.
The Davids' Cross-Country Trip 