Mesa Verde National Park

We spent the day in Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado. The Pueblo Indians built homes in the cliffs here about 1000 years ago and the ruins have been preserved for us to see.

From the museum we looked down at the Spruce Tree House seen here.
We then hiked about a half mile down to the structure.







The Structure built back into the natural overhang in the sandstone was home to between 60 and 90 Pueblo Indians some 900 years ago.

They lived here for 75 to 100 years before moving on. Since the life expectancy was about 35 years this was home to about three generations of Pueblo.



They had to carry all the materials into the cliff since they had no mules or other beasts of burden to help them. What an amazing feat!

We also looked down at the biggest of the dwellings called the Cliff Palace. While we didn't get to go down to it we were still in awe of the structure.

Still another view of the ruins of Cliff place. We did some hiking in the park and called it a day. Tomorrow is a rest day with a little local touring before heading to Santa Fe on Wednesday.