Mesa Verde 6-2-2013

Hello from Mesa Verde, CO.  I think we've demonstrated enough Pueblo housing in the cliffs, but today was a very special hike (Balcony House) where we got to climb inside one of the ruins that we've been showing you.  Whole different experience.  But before I moved into that, just one more interesting shot.  This is looking across Cliff Canyon.  Just under the ledge in the middle, maybe you can see a series of boxy looking shapes. 

Now this is the close up of it with a telephoto lens.  It's a whole city under there! And see how small the tour group is next to it? This was like a downtown for suburbia, and unless you knew what to look for, the whole thing disappeared into the cliff face. 

Now to Balcony House.  Note the top of John's hat.  There's kind of a line on the wall right behind him.  That would have been the floor of the second floor.  These people were 5'1" to at most 5'7" tall, but even so.  It would have been pretty tight quarters. 

There is a whole series of ladders and steps to get into Balcony House.  Here is the first one.  Afraid of heights?  Focus!  You can do it.

The current thought is that they wanted to protect themselves against intruders.  So .... there is a tunnel that you have to crawl through on your hands and knees.  In their time this was the only way in and out.  Here is a view of the tunnel and then pictures of Marilyn creeping in.

Looks like John's happy to get out the other end!

In the house, to get from one level to another, they had chipped footholds into the rock.

To get out of Balcony House and back up the canyon wall required ladders...

...and steps that are carved into the canyon wall.  They were created by the CCC in the 1930's as part of the development of the National Parks.  They are VERY steep and not much more than a toehold ( FOCUS John!! ) and you can surely get winded going up!  It's a minimum of 7000 feet here.

...and more ladders.  Here, looking down from the top of the last ladder, you can see how steep the getting out was, and why John had to Focus! Focus!!  Focus!!!

 Now these are the real, historic, toe holds.  The Indians used these to climb to and from their cliff dwellings and in this case from one level to the "second floor apartment" in another house.  Archeologists say there would have probably been a ladder to get them to the toe holds.

This picture below was in the Far View House (another set of ruins).  It really struck me as the first production model, (far ahead of the industrial revolution).  This is a series of metate where the woman ground the corn.  They sat on the ground and pushed a rock against these small shelves.  Only time I saw several in a row.  Maybe the women decided if they had to work that hard, at least they could talk! 

This is a yucca plant in bloom.  They used it for food, clothing, blankets, sandals, medicine, just about any daily function that you can imagine.  

Tomorrow we head to Ouray, Colorado.