Mesa Verde National Park. 2 Days. Accommodation: Far View Lodge inside the park. Attraction: Ancient Puebloan cave dwellings.
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| Cliff Palace |
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| Balcony House |
Starting about 1500 years ago and for about 700 years an ancient civilisation created homes, and whole communities, in the natural sheltered alcoves in the canyon wall of Mesa Verde. Really elaborate and exquisitely preserved, the cave homes reveal a fascinating insight into the lives of these ancient people. We visited three of these dwellings: two by ranger tour only and one was freely accessible behind the museum.
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| Balcony House |
Cliff Palace was entered by easy stone steps, but Balcony House was a little more challenging. Firstly easy stone steps descend deep into the cliff and then you climb up into the cave using a ladder. You step inside an amazing world built into the cliff itself of homes and community areas of the ancient Puebloan people. The ranger enthusiastically relays stories of what their lives were like, how they grew food and where their water came from. To get out you crawl through a tunnel (a likely defensive structure, think guy with club as enemy comes through), climb up a ladder and then pull yourself by chain up the rest of the way on the cliff itself. Really cool and great fun. The last one, Spruce Tree House, you were allowed to enter and wander through yourself and could even climb into a kiva. These were underground structures used for religious ceremonies, schools and the like. A bit too small a classroom for my liking (shiver).
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| Elizabeth escaping from Balcony House |
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| Exiting a Kiva |
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| Spruce Tree House |
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| Using the tunnel |
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| Autumn colours on a popular hike |
There were many other things to do at Mesa Verde and the high surrounding countryside with its Autumn clad hills provided many spectacular views and relaxing hiking trails. We had time to cover a few nice ones. But to me the best part was these amazing cave homes.
Bryce National Park. At least 2 days. Accommodation: Foster's Inn, close and cheap, just outside the park. Attraction: Weird rock formations called hoodoos.
This is one of the most unique locations I have ever come across. Spread across a panoramic landscape are thousands of weird rock protrusions sticking out of the ground like they grew there, a forest of rock trees. But they did not grow, more precisely the ground collapsed around them. At an altitude of approximately 2300m in Utah, the uplift here is in the perfect location for continuous freezing and melting over the 180 plus days per year it rains. During the day the water pools in cracks in the rocks and then freezes at night, expanding and leveraging the rocks apart until they crumble and collapse leaving these weird structures they call hoodoos.
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| Tower Bridge |
We just could not get enough of the amazing views, driving to every lookout and hiking as many trails as we could get to over the two days we were here. Legs sore and tired by the time we left but we still wished we had allowed 3 days. Must do hikes are the Queen's Garden/Navajo Trail combination loop (billed as the world's best 5km hike) and the Fairyland Loop. Both loops put you into a world looking like what I imagine Mars would look like, but with trees. Some of the trees also look otherworldly as the rim erodes and the trees hang on with the bare edges of their roots seemingly ready to hop off and go on a stroll. We were unable to complete the Fairyland Loop as the day was windy and cold but we made it to the Tower Bridge before turning back. I found it hard to cull the photos for this post so I have probably displayed too many :-)
