Saturday, June 22, 2013

Mesa Verde Part III

About 1200 the 'ancient ones' had developed their masonry skills and began to build in the alcoves under the mesa and just over 100 years later they had completely disappeared from the area. When you think of all the work that went in to these elaborate structures in just a 100 year span it boggles the mind. One of the largest structure was the Spruce House (seen in the Day I post) which had 130 rooms and eight kivas and probably housed 60 to 90 people. Here are some of the other dwellings.





















This was all seen from Chapin Mesa and the Mesa Top Loop drive. Tomorrows post will be from Wetherill Mesa. The Wetherill Mesa road is restricted to vehicles under 8,000 pounds and less than 25 feet in length. Mel would have failed on both counts. 

Today falls into the weekend mode with a ball game and little else planned. Another day to enjoy the good life.

14 comments:

  1. Learning the historyof an area is a great way of Enjoy the Good Life. Be Safe!

    It's about time.

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  2. My daughter and s-i-l drove me to Wetherill Mesa and we went on the tour of Long House. There were several RV's in the parking lot @ Wetherill, I guess the drivers could not read the signs.

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    Replies
    1. There weren't any the day I was there, might have something to do with the park ranger sitting at the Far View turnoff. I did notice a lot of Cruise America rentals in the park, which was real scary.

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  3. Gorgeous header photo.

    I have learned about and seen this area first hand, but I still can't get my mind around how they did it. Amazing!!!

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  4. I just have to get there. My friends totally enjoyed it also.

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  5. How large are these dwellings? Although I see some people in one of your pictures and that provides some perspective, it's hard to image just how big the entire area is. Are they as tall as two story buildings? Fascinating.

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    Replies
    1. What you are seeing is a compilation of several different dwellings. In the park there are over 4500 sites and 600 are cliff dwellings. Rooms are about 6' to 8' square. As families grew rooms were added. It has to be seen to really fathom what is here.

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  6. It took them so long to built this incredible place. Wonder why they left?

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    Replies
    1. No one has the answer to that question. There is lots of speculation, but nothing definitive.

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  7. Those structures are in better shape than most of the buildings in Detroit. And the Detroit buildings are no where near that old. Amazing craftsmanship!

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