Mesa Verde

Eight years ago today, we were not in Colorado. We were headed to the hospital to welcome the appearance of our youngest son into our family. Today, we awoke on this very special day with Isaac cuddling in our bed.

Mesa Verde means Green Table in Spanish. We were going to spend Isaac's birthday exploring the top and sides of this impressive mesa that had occupied the largest part of the southern horizon during most of our trip in the state of Colorado.

We have either acclimated to Mountain Time, or, we were so worn out by the late evening, that we blissfully slept in. We reached the park with what seemed like a line of 20 cars around 10:00 a.m. We were all ready to pay our $15 per car entry fee, but were waved through by the Ranger at the gate who explained that they were having a special “fee free” day today. What a deal!

Having read the guidebooks ahead of time, we knew that we should head for the Visitor’s Center to book our reservations for one of the guided tours. While in line (a very long line that wound outside the visitor’s center and 1/3 of the way down the path in front), we read the descriptions of the two most popular tours. Cliff House Tour consisted of an uneven stair descent and 5 vertical ladders of about 10 feet each. Balcony House Tour consisted of a 32 foot ladder ascent into the dwelling, a 12 foot crawl through a small tunnel and another 60 foot open cliff face descent to the exit. Given the response of two of our party to heights, we opted for the Cliff House Tour.

At $3 per person, we signed up for the 4:00 p.m. tour, picked up our Junior Ranger material and then headed out to score some lunch. Just up the road was a café and gift shop so we stopped there and had a bite to eat. The place was really empty which was a pleasant surprise. Given the amount of people cramming into the visitor’s center, we figured that anywhere we ate would be teeming with people. We ate in relative solitude in a large dining room overlooking the mesa and desert valley below. We left just as the place began filling up.

We then drove the 7 miles to the museum where we saw some really cool dioramas depicting the transition of the native lifestyle from one that was basically nomadic to a more stable, farming society with the pueblo cities built into alcoves in the rock face. The boys were the most interested in this part of the museum. The rest of the museum was cases and cases of artifacts that had been dug up at the site. The most interesting of these was the many uses for the yucca plant – Ross and I had no idea the plant was so versatile.

After skimming through the museum, we headed out on the self-guided trail to the Spruce Tree House, the best preserved pueblo site at Mesa Verde. We learned that the natives, who of course did not have the Civilian Conservation Corp created stairs and paved trails to walk to their villages in the rock, used hand and toe holds that they carved in the rock face to not only climb to their pueblos from the land below but also to climb to the top of the mesa to farm.

We read about the construction of the pueblo, the kivas – which were basically underground, multi-purpose rooms, and the way the natives used the plants and stone around them to make a way of life for themselves. We were especially impressed with one supposed use of the juniper tree bark as a diaper for their children. We studied a juniper tree pretty closely after that little piece of information. All we can say is, ouch.

We huffed and puffed back out of the Spruce Tree cave area (we were up around 8,500 feet – the highest we had been the entire trip) and went to the nearby café where we purchased a cool drink and relaxed. While there, we worked on the junior ranger booklets and enjoyed the shade of a patio umbrella and cool breeze. When that was over, we headed back to the museum to get the boys sworn in to receive their junior ranger badge.

Right in front of us was a family with three girls and a small, baby boy. We learned through conversation that they also were celebrating a family birthday as one of their daughters had just turned 7 a few days earlier. Isaac and the girl checked each other out as the adults discussed the pros and cons of July birthdays. The ranger in charge of swearing the boys in did a great job asking them questions and going over safety rules with them. After that he had a really unique swearing in ceremony.

“Raise your right hand and repeat after me,” he said. “As a Mesa Verde Junior Ranger, I promise to do all I can to help protect our national parks and all the resources they preserve. I will collect litter when I am out exploring and show respect for nature by not disturbing anything wild. I also promise to continue to explore, learn about, and respect the natural world wherever I go. Furthermore, I promise to bring every ranger I meet chocolate chip cookies.” This guy had a sense of humor – as well as a sweet tooth.

After that, it getting near time to go meet our 4:00 Cliff House tour guide. On the way there, we took a brief detour around the Mesa Top driving trail to look at the pit houses and early pueblos left by the civilizations that existed prior to the period where they dipped below the cliffs. Then, we headed for Cliff House.

Waiting there with us was none other than the family who’s daughters were sworn in as Junior Rangers just before us. After striking up a conversation with them and the waiting ranger, we discovered that they were from Wichita. He was in the military and they were doing a tour of the Southwest with their pop up camper. We also discovered that we had signed up for the same tour!

Ranger Robert Parker was our tour guide for Cliff House. This guy was a wonderful straight man with an extremely dry sense of humor. He was terrific. And, he picked Isaac out right away – mostly because Isaac had scoured the car for all of the ranger badges he had earned during his trip and lined them up in a row across the front of his shirt to wear on the tour. The site was earning looks from several members of the tour crowd.

Ranger Robert chose Isaac out of the crowd of around 45 people to be the official leader of the group. It was his job to lead the line of people to the first stopping point so that the ranger could stay behind, collect tickets and close the gate after the last family unit was through. He felt very important and we couldn’t have asked for a better recognition for his birthday.

The minute we headed down the stairs at the beginning of the trail, I knew that I had been there before. This was the very ruin that I remembered from my youth when we visited in the 70s. During that time, the tour was completely open to the public and was self-guided. While I missed the free-range provided by the earlier experience, I enjoyed having the tour guide – and probably learned more than I would have otherwise.

Ranger Robert taught us that the natives grew three crops that worked together to thrive in the environment on top of the mesa. They created earth dams that would trap the soil eroding from the top of the mesa as well as hold the water that was rolling down the hillside creating level fields to grow their crops. They grew corn that they planted deep into the soil so that it reached the water filled topsoil. They then planted beans which used the corn stalks as natural stakes to grow. And, to keep the water that did gather on the mesa top for as long as possible, they topped the whole thing off with squash plants which spread out and keep the ground shaded and prevent water evaporation. Smart people.

When the Ranger opened the floor up for questions, Isaac wanted to know how people went to the bathroom. Ranger Robert complimented him on his excellent question and explained how the tribes would normally designate an area below the sandstone alcove so that people weren’t going all over the place.

After we admired the architecture and the skill required to build it, we headed up the three ladders of the exit back to the mesa top. After that, we headed back down the mesa and back to the cabin.

While Ross took an early evening nap, the boys and I watched Dragonheart. This was a movie that I’ve seen many times, but it was a maiden voyage for the boys. Based on their complete silence and rapt attention throughout the film, I’m guessing that they liked it. After the movie, we all headed down to the lake again so the boys could fish. Peggy and Lee were out as well so while the boys fished, I chatted with our host and hostess.

Peggy and Lee Cloy are a great couple who originally hail from the north. Several years ago Peggy heard the siren song of this little acreage and coerced Lee into joining her six years later. Peggy is an artist who sculpts and has several items on display publicly. Lee is involved in several conservation efforts including the most current fight against a beetle that is actively killing the pinyon pines in the area. Willowtail Springs has been successful in containing the damage caused by this beetle.

The boys returned from fishing bragging that they had all caught a fish – almost at the same time. Ross came shortly afterward saying that it could not have happened better. Everyone caught a fish at the same time, they were all about the same size and all was fair and square. Peggy and Lee were delighted to hear it and talked to the boys for a while about their experience at the B&B.

After that, we headed back to the Cottage and, at Isaac’s request, topped off his birthday with a family trip to the hot tub. We spent about 20 minutes relaxing in the water and talking. After that the boys’ fear of the wild things on the property won out over their desire to sit in the hot tub so we went back to the cottage and went to bed.