30.4.2012 – 30.4.2012  20 °C

Early start this morning as we left the funky little town of Bluff and headed in an Easterly direction to Mesa Verde. First stop was to the four corners monument (south of Bluff). The 4 corners monument is the point at which Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet. I wasn’t expecting much and the monument met my expectations!! There was a nice metal plaque on the ground and the obligatory Navajo sellers and that was it!!! Morning tea was a yummy flat bread spiced with cinnamon that we bought from one of the Navajo sellers before we continued our drive to Mesa Verde.

A couple of hours later we arrived at the entrance to the park and began the long drive up to the top of the Mesa! (The ruins are built into the cliffs of the Mesa).. I haven’t explained yet that a Mesa is the name for the flat topped mountains that exist here in the US.. From the gate to the visitor centre we would have driven for at least 20 min.. pretty big park! At the visitor centre we purchased our tickets to climb into the Cliff Palace (the largest of the cliff dwellings).. To get into a couple of the cliff dwellings you need to go with a guided ranger so you need to pay 3 dollars to join one of the groups. M was quite nervous about climbing into the palace because our guide book warned about strenuous climbing and hiking as did all of the notices at the visitor centre, but we convinced her to buy a ticket and give it a go!

First stop in the park was at the museum where we went for a walk down to the most accessible cliff dwelling Spruce House. The walk was probably about a 50 m down from the museum which wasn’t too bad (except we are at 8000 ft so we were getting puffed from the altitude).. The house is actually multiple dwellings and probably housed an extended family unit. The houses are made underneath a sandstone cliff and the houses are made out of mud brick and stone. Archaeologists have done little restoration to the houses so they are largely in the same nick as they would have been for the past couple of hundred years! The dwellings here at Mesa Verde are thought to have been abandoned since the mid 1200’s  making the dwellings at least 800 years old!

After a tough walk back up the hill (puffing all the way! J) we headed down to the Cliff Palace for our tour thru the ruins. To get to the Cliff Palace you need to climb down a set of steep stairs and then climb back up 3x 8ft ladders! (Actually, climbing the Cliff Palace was a lot easier than the Spruce House!) I was really proud of M as she did the whole climb quite easily!!!

The Cliff Palace was thought to be built to help observe the stars. (The Pueblos were (and still are) star gazers to track the seasons). The dwelling probably housed at least a hundred people and had its own source of water, a natural spring in the back of the cave. We were very fortunate because as we were sitting hearing about the dwelling from the ranger we saw about four turkey vultures flying overhead (I thought they were eagles or hawks.. certainly don’t look like any Turkey I’ve ever seen!!)

The dwellers of the Cliff Palace were likely to have been farmers. They think that they would have farmed up on the Mesa (corn and beans) and lived in the cliff. The archaeologists are unsure why the dwellings in the Mesa were abandoned but the most likely cause is because of drought (or some other sort of natural disaster).

After climbing back out of the dwelling to the top of the Mesa we drove around to see some of the earlier dwellings that have been excavated in the park. The earliest dwelling was from around 900 AD and was a dug out dirt dwelling (as opposed to the later mud brick dwellings). During one of our wanders to see the old dwellings, D and M think they saw a road runner!!! So disappointed that I haven’t seen one yet! (Apparently, they are very hard to spot unless they run in front of you so I may not see one on this trip)

We finally said farewell to Mesa Verde and continued east to the old western town of Durango. The drive from Mesa Verde to Durango was so amazing.. the distance is only about 30 miles but during that time the landscape became more and more mountainous as well as more and more verdant and green! I find it amazing that you can travel about an hour and go from complete desert to heavy forests!!

Durango is a very touristy town and is made famous as one of the frontier wild west towns. It is also one of the towns that is often used when filming western movies. After finding somewhere to stay we headed down to the historic part of town to check out the old buildings and to find somewhere to eat some dinner. We found the most historic pub in town (the Straton) and headed into the main bar for some eats and some great music! The Straton still retains it’s 1800s charm! Everyone working is dressed in 1800s style, the main bar is mirrored and displays all of the liquor.. Velvet drapes cover the windows, old style lamps… All very western (and I’m sure is used heavily when making movies).

Dinner was the most awesome roast chicken with garlic mash and beans!! YUM! Probably the best meal I’ve eaten here in the US!! The bar also had a resident guitarist so we spent the evening singing away.. All in all a great place to stop for an evening!

Song of the Day– Escape Club, Wild Wild West