Mesa Verde

We kicked off summer break with a long weekend at Mesa Verde National Park, where the Ancestral Puebloan people built cliff dwellings that you can still go visit today.  

Thanks to the park rangers, who guided us through the dwellings of Balcony House, Cliff Palace, and Long House, we learned a lot about kivas, water sources, and food storage.  We also got to squeeze through tunnels, climb steep ladders, and listen to some haunting tribal flute music.  And when we'd had enough of walking through the hot sun, we got to hang out in our cute Airbnb with our even cuter pup.

Balcony House - This one was the most "strenuous" of the tours, with numerous tight tunnels and tall ladders.

Learning all about kivas.  At the bottom of most kivas, there is a "sipapu" - i.e., a tiny hole symbolizing the portal through which spirits emerge from the underworld.  

Cliff Palace - This is apparently one of the largest cliff dwellings in North America.  Lots of similarities to Balcony House, but fewer ladders.  It also has more than 150 rooms and over 20 kivas (ancestral gathering/ceremonial places).

Super interested in how kivas worked.

Long House - While Long House was similar in many ways to Cliff Palace, this was the first place we got to see real cave paintings!

These underground "seep springs" put the "verde" in Mesa Verde!

The Ancestral Puebloans carved channels from the water source the led to little water basins that they could use for daily tasks.

Cave paintings!

Can you see the handprint?

So long...house (har har)

We all agreed it was pretty cool how the Ancestral Puebloans built their cozy communities in the shade where it was cool and sheltered.  But we also agreed that we prefer electricity, running water, and air conditioning.

Pepper held down the fort while we toured the cave dwellings.

Goofing off at the gift shop.

Getting my hair styled before dinner.

Aaron impersonating an Ancestral Puebloan mummy.  

Just kidding, they didn't mummify people.  This is actually just how Aaron sleeps at night, which is actually even scarier.