The Colvin boys only had 1 full day left to go see Mesa Verde, so see it we did! We got tickets to all 3 tours of the cliff dwellings for Thursday, the 17th. They were skeptical at the visitor's center that we could handle that much, but we were the few, the strong, the brave and not even hiking could hinder our enthusiasm! There was road construction going on, so we had to leave at 7am to be sure we were there in time for our 9am first tour. On our way in, as we were following the Colvins, they pulled over and started taking photos. There were 2 black bears! It was so cool! Of course, it turned out we were too early for the construction... so we were an hour early for our tour. But if we had been later we would have missed the bears, so we were glad to have gotten up so early.
We took our first tour at Cliff Palace. The guide did a good job of having us imagine what life would have been like in the 1200's and the similarities and differences between life then and now. It was so cool to be able to see these ancient cliff dwellings so close up! We went immediately to our next tour at Balcony House. The guide for that tour was funny and informative! Again we hiked down into an ancient cliff dwelling. I don't know how to describe how amazing and intricate these dwellings are. The boys enjoyed the tours (even though Colin hates tours!) and even stayed back to ask the guides questions. They made their homeschooling momma proud! Next we had a picnic lunch and went on a self guided tour of Spruce Tree House. In that one, we could actually climb down into a covered Kiva and see what it would have been like inside. For our third tour we went to Longhouse. Our tour guide for that one was a Native American Indian and brought yet another angle to how life would have been. He compared the religious ceremonies the ancient Pueblo Indians had with the types of ceremonies held in various religions we would be familiar with today. It was an interesting perspective. He also talked about the reverence to life and the earth the Pueblo Indians had and how important rain was. They had to wait for rain to build their dwellings, because there was not enough water to spare otherwise. He spoke in a quiet, calm manner, with a slight accent that added much to the experience. After that tour, we were told that we could walk around the three remaining sites before the area closed for the night. By this time it was around 4:30 and we had been going at it all day. Everyone was enthusiastic to go through the last bit but poor Colin. It was hot, he was tired and wanted to go back. Marcus volunteered to take him back while the rest of us went, but suddenly he decided he could handle it. He must have gotten a second wind. We all went and saw the remaining sites that were built before the cliff dwellings were built around 600 AD. They were much smaller and less sophisticated, but still very cool!
Rating for June 17th:
Craig 9
Ann 10 I LOVE this place!!
Marcus 10
Derek 10
Eric 10
Colin 10
VIP is a three way tie with Marcus, Ann and ERIC!!
The next day Craig and Eric were leaving us to go back home. They were going to check out the four corners landmark on their way to the airport. We decided to go with them. The area is closed Monday through Thursday for construction as they are (get this) moving the location of the marker. I am unclear as to the rationale behind this. I think Craig or Marcus read up on it. Anyway, when we go there, there was a big fenced off area that contained the spot and the construction site, so we couldn't actually be in all four states at once. We DID run around the construction site, thus being in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah withing 5 minutes. That was the best we could do. Then we said our goodbyes to Craig and Eric and headed back to our little RV park. We decided to spend the afternoon swimming, laundering and reading. I did a day or two of blogging, trying valiantly to catch up. It was lovely.
I have not uploaded the photos from this yet, so I will have to come back to this to post them. so keep posted.
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