Woke up to the sunlight heating up our tent and making it pleasantly warm; we had set an alarm, so got up, cooked breakfast then packed away all of our food stuff… Signs everywhere stating we are in bear country now!
We had a tour booked at 11am on the other side of the park; took us a little over half an hour to drive the winding mountain roads to the South side where the ‘Mesa'(table top) is. Our tour was through a mostly intact, large cliff dwelling called ‘Balcony House’ led by a park ranger. Our guide was entertaining, expetionally well learned and of Navajo decent. Really enjoyed hearing a passionate individual calling concern to our current western ways and excessive over-consumption of our resources… Particularly water. I hadn’t even realised ‘Water is life’ had been such a sacred part of their heritage for many hundreds of years before DAPL.
To get into the cliff house we climbed a 32foot ladder, once inside we learned about the Puebloan way of life, culture, why they moved down from the Mesa tops and uses for the different rooms. Then crawled through a narrow tunnel in the cliff to exit the dwelling.
Climbing into Balcony house the western way
Tanguy in the far side of Balcony house
We did the Mesa top loop drive, stopping at the most famous and largest intact of all Indian dwellings in North America, ‘Cliff Palace’ which boasted more than 150rooms in the side of the cliff. Pretty impressive. To get perspective there had been over 4,000 archeological sites found within this National Park, so we saw a lot of ruins today!! Along the loop we saw several excavated pit houses, kivas(circular ceremonial rooms below ground level), large stone buildings on the Mesa and so many cliff dwellings of various sizes, including one with a four story building(!). They were quite the architects back in their time, and in a dessert as well which would have been quite a challenge. Not to mention climbing up and down the steep cliff faces everyday to get from home to the farm etc.
The largest cliff dwelling in North America, ‘Cliff Palace’ over 150rooms
One of the excavated kivas on the Mesa top
Square tower house, the only one standing with a four story building
We had a bite to eat a the cafe, checked out the museum displays and video, and were pretty beat by late afternoon.
On the way back to camp we stopped at Far View, another huge set of stone buildings on the plains, where they were farming before moving into the cliffs.
Part of Far View, which you could walk around in
Managed to shower before the sun set behind the hills, starts getting cold again after that! We were nice and warm in the sun during our tours of the ruins today. Cooked dinner at camp and had a fire to warm up before bed.
–Zoe
Today was ancient Indian culture (feathers, not dots) as a change to rock formations.
Could be compared to Mayan and Inca culture and buildings in S-America,no?
Every day learns its lesson and at the end of your trip you’ll be so much wiser.
Interesting trip to follow from afar, but long time no see though!
Baci
Very interesting to see how the Puebloans used to live +/- 7000 years ago. The work they had to do to build their houses high up on the Mesas and down under ground level. These guys must have been working every day from 6am to 10pm to build, hunt and grow maize, squash, beans,corn and raising turkeys…What about irrigation ? Is there a river in the neighborhood ?
Thanks to you we’re getting wiser every day 🙂
You’ll have loads of stories to tell us next winter …
Bisous – Mum