June 6, 2013 Hiking into History

Rise & Shine was early today!!! We have a 10:30am tour out at Mesa Verde National Park to view one of the cliff dwellings. Lennie was already showering when I got up. We ate a hurried breakfast & LENNIE completely packed our picnic lunch while I showered & dressed!?! I walked Otis, while Len loaded the car, & then.....Otis stayed behind in the RV! He's not suffering tho! He has food,water,A/C running & the window curtain open so he can "people watch"!      Good-bye Otis, see ya later!!!

For the cliff dwelling tours, after entering the park you drive straight to the designated Trail Head to await the tour. The tours are very timely, we start with a little precaution safety talk with the Ranger. Our Ranger was Melissa & today was her birthday.During her talk, I kept hearing her use the word STRENUOUS & I was beginning to wonder if I belonged on this tour???

 Promptly our Tour Tram showed up & we were off!

It was only about a 2 mile trip to our cliff dwelling, the Long House.

There are 5 cliff dwellings open to the public. Three of which can only be entered on a ranger-guided tour. Long House is one of the ranger-guided tours.Lennie chose our tour when he bought the tickets the previous day. He chose Long House tour because it was advertised as the most in-depth tour.It was a 90 minute tour(that  included the tram ride to & from the trail head) including climbing two 15 ft ladders, I knew this ahead of time & still went???

Before we went on this tour, we had viewed some of the cliff dwellings from the overlook. From a distance they looked miniature like someone had made them for an exhibit. It was really something to be walking around in structures over 800 yrs old. The Long House dwelling was 80% original.We were told ahead of time what we could touch & stand on & what we couldn't!

Our Ranger Melissa was very informative she sure made our walk into history interesting! Climbing up the ladders was a pretty easy task, but walking back up the grade to the top, left me huffing! It was hard to believe the Ancestral Pueblo people lived in the cliffs & then would have to climb the cliffs to the top to plant & tend their crops. there was no need for any other exercise, that's for sure!

Lennie timed our tour just right so it would finish just in time for our picnic lunch. What he didn't plan when we got to the Picnic Area was a tour bus full of what looked like 5th or 6th graders! They & their teacher/chaperon had every available table taken! Instead of driving around the park looking for another picnic area, we just settled on a shady bench!

Maybe it was a good thing Otis wasn't along on this picnic!?!

Ranger Melissa told the tour that if given the chance, to tour the self guided cliff dwelling, Spruce Tree House. It is Mesa Verde's best-preserved & third largest cliff dwelling. It was constructed between A.D 1211 & A.D. 1278. This particular dwelling probably housed 60-80 people in about 130 rooms.

The trail was only 1/2 mile round trip,but it was straight down & then back up.
                       My hiking legs are beginning to feel like spaghetti!?!

   In this cliff dwelling you had the option to climb a ladder to a below area called  a Kiva.                       I opted NOT to, but Lennie, he did it!?!

             I told Len that must have been the ORIGINAL BASEMENT?

When we started down the trail to view Spruce Tree house. I overheard a man talking about seeing owls on the alcove ledge. I kept looking for them but couldn't see any??? But after leaving the cliff house, I kept hearing a sound that kept repeating. I took my camera & zoomed toward the sound & there they were, 3 owls!!!

      No wonder they were  so  hard to spot, they blend so well with the alcove.

We've done enough hiking! On our way out of the park we make one more stop.We stop at Point Peak. This is the highest elevation in Mesa Verde National Park, at over 8500 ft. It is also where the Fire Watch station is. We took one more grand panoramic view of Mesa Verde National Park!

I don't know what this flowery bush is, but it dotted the mountainsides.

Needless to say, on the way home Lennie stopped at McDonald's to get Mr. "McSpoiled" his McDouble! Otis had his burger treat & Lennie put some fish on the grill teriyaki style, yummy!!!
                           Tomorrow is going to be a leisure day!