Mesa Verde, Colorado

 3/13/23

We were planning on visiting the Four Corners (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) but Ernie had been reading reviews and it seems it too commercialized.  They charge you money to take a picture standing on a monument that is technically not even the correct location!  We were in all 4 states anyway, maybe not all at once, but.....!

We are headed for Sante Fe, NM to see my cousin John and his wife Tish on Tuesday, so what to do today?

These are the Manti-La Sal Mountains!

Saw some crazy clouds!  Doesn't this look like a volcano erupted in front of us?

This is what was hiding behind those clouds!

We saw a sign for Mesa Verde National Park!  I didn't even know that park existed.  Hey, why not....another National Park under our belt!

So what is Mesa Verde (I have been calling it Salsa Verde for some unknown reason) and what is the attraction?  We were about to find out!  This is a picture of a Pueblo Indian climbing, and why is he climbing? Because for 700 years, the Pueblo people lived in structures high in the cliffs of these mountains!

We had to drive about 20 miles up the mountain...

This was the first look at how the lived!  How??????  It is amazing to me how these people ever THOUGHT to build structures on these rock cliffs?  They would build there homes in the cliffs and then farm the land at the top of the Mesa.

Not much is know about this structure, but it is called the Sun House.

This was called City Palace, and it does kind of look like a palace!

In the summer, there are many many lightening strikes (up to 100 per day) and so, there are lots of fires!  Here is a small look at the devastation.  Is this why the Pueblo's built their homes on the cliffs so be protected from fire?  Who knows!

20 miles back down the mountain and ran into a snow squall (on some winding mountain roads) with visibility getting worse!

I was a little nervous, but Ernie was a champ about driving in it!

Finally made it to the bottom and clear skies!

It was an unexpectedly delightful day!

Onto Sante Fe tomorrow to see John and Tish (who are very thoughtful to have us stop) they are heading to Portugal for 10 weeks!  Talk about your WORLD Travelers!