Today was the first of 4 straight days of National Park visits for us. We started our visit to Mesa Verde with a ranger led tour of Cliff Palace (see picture). Cliff Palace is one of about 4 or 5 major cliff dwellings in the park and is the largest site in North America with about 150 rooms. The cliff dwellings were built around 1200 but only used for about 75 years and then abandoned. No one knows why it was abandoned or where the people went.
Cliff Palace wasn’t all that easy to get to, but it is an amazing experience. You have to climb down 100 steps to get there and then back up using a mixture of steps and ladders. I know that doesn’t sound all that hard, but try it at 7,000 feet. You get very winded by the time you hit the top.
We then drove the park loop, toured the visitor center, had lunch and drove 2 hours to Moab, UT. By the way, we are listening to a Nevada Barr book on tape that is centered on a murder in Mesa Verde, so we are getting a detailed look at the park even as we drive.
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