Too Many Questions…Not Enough Answers


Today we visited Mesa Verde National Park.  Mesa Verde is Spanish for ‘green table’ and one ‘big green table’ it is.  Entering the park, the road takes you up, up, and up to over 8000 feet until you get to the flat top.  The Park is covered in Juniper and Pinion Pine, at least the 50% that has not been burned.  The other 50% is slowly trying to recover from massive forest fires in 1996, 2000, and again in 2002.  Very few of the trees survived but it is still covered in greenery.

Our exploration of the Park today only ‘muddied’ our understanding of the Pueblo Indians.  Mesa Verde is covered in Pueblo ruins many of which have been excavated by archaeologists.  There is evidence that the Pueblo Indians occupied the top of Mesa Verde starting in about 600 AD.  They grew their crops of corn, beans, and squash in scattered fields, probably wherever water was available.

The reason for our confusion is that in about 1200 AD the Pueblo Indians moved from the top of the Mesa to elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls.  These were unbelievable structures, some as large as 130 rooms and 8 kivas.  These buildings are clinging to the rock face.  To tend their crops, (which by the way were still up on top) they notched hand and footholds in the rock face and built rope ladders to get up and down, unbelievable!  And even more unbelievable is that by the late 1200’s within a generation or two, they left their cliff dwellings and moved away.  Too many questions…not enough answers!

Distance Traveled = 111 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Bullock’s Oriole, Common Raven, Carolina Chickadee, Rock Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Spotted Towhee, Green-tailed Towhee, Yellow headed collared Lizard.


View from campsite last night as the sun set


Square Tower cliff dwelling house


Cliff Palace


Yellow Headed Collared Lizard in Mesa Verde


The Result of multiple fires in the park over the last 25 years


Sky turned black again in the late afternoon

Comments

  1. BC Round 219 June 2019 at 10:15

    WOW Guys, Can't believe you're trip. So Jelous! We are staying around here for our holidays. Camping up in the mountains. We looked at the weather, we feel Arizona and Utah are too hot for us right now. We are Whimps! Keep having Fun!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BC Round 219 June 2019 at 10:16

      Ohh ha ha my name never changed... obviously it's Laura an dAllan!

      Delete

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