Day 10 - Mesa Verde

Today was the second day in a row that we rode in 4 different states. We started out in Bluff, Utah, and headed east to Mesa Verde, Colorado, then from there we rode into Farmington, New Mexico, and Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.

Mesa Verde was so much more than we ever expected. Just the ride through the National Park was awesome in itself but then the tour through the pueblo ruins was incredible. The ride had those curves that only a motorcylist could love. A visit to Balcony House provides an inside look at a classic 13th century cliff dwelling. This is one of the best preserved sites in the park. It affords a stunning view down into Soda Canyon, a tributary of the Mancos River, and displays intriguing architectural features - balconies, a long retaining wall, and a tunnel.

The builders of Balcony House were people now known as Ancestral Puebloans. They were farmers, who grew crops on the mesa tops but who chose to build their homes in the cliffs during the final century of their occupation of Mesa Verde from A.D. 1200 to 1300. I wonder if our homes will survive like the pueblo ruins have for over 800 years. It was amazing there were so many cliff dwellings. They were all over the place. There were over 40,000 Ancestral Puebloans inhabitants.

We ate a picnic lunch in the park. Louie ran around trying to get a picture of a bird and Peg crawled in a tree hut. Everyone else was somewhat normal.

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

After we were finished at Mesa Verde, we had a Tribal Council to decide what route we were going to take back to the campground. It was decided we would travel east to Durango BUT we saw black rain clouds so we made a quick turn south heading to Farmington, NM. Another beautiful ride with spectacular views.