Cortez, Colorado

Our first day in Cortez, Colorado was spent at Mesa Verde National Park. First we hiked over steep and narrow steps down to the Cliff Palace on the Chapin Mesa and enjoyed several Rangers talking about the settlements’ construction. This included an explanation about the multiple uses of the kivas, which were round structures dug into the ground and covered with a roof. A hole in the roof allowed families to enter by climbing down a ladder. The roof opening also served to vent a fire pit located in the center of the room below. This became a meeting place for the family and later evolved into a place to hold gatherings, celebrations, religious services, and occasionally even for the temporary storage of food.

The Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It grew to over 150 rooms and more than 20 kivas; the estimated population at its peak was around 100 people.  Built in roughly 1190, it was abandoned about 1300 CE.  Of the nearly 600 cliff dwellings in the park, some 75% contained only 1-5 rooms.




















Next we drove to the Wetherill Mesa at the end of the other branch of the park road and hiked down to the Step House for another experience with a smaller cliff dwelling site. This site didn’t require a pre-arranged tour ticket, but was staffed by Rangers to answer questions and explain how its inhabitants had lived in this settlement for over 150 years.










The next day we drove to the Visitors Center at Canyons of the Ancients, watched 2 films and toured the museum. 
















Afterwards we drove out to the Great Sage Plain and went thru the Lowry Pueblo, which  included a “Great Kiva” that had been used by inhabitants of that Pueblo. The Lowry settlement was constructed by the Ancestral Pueblo people around 1060 AD and they inhabited it for about 165 years. It began as a small village with a few rooms and one kiva. They farmed corn, beans and squash - and supplemented their diet with small game.  The men averaged 5’3” in height. Half of all children may have died before the age of 6, and the average life span was 30 years.  By the time the last families left Lowry and migrated to the south and east, the Pueblo had grown to 40 rooms, 8 kivas, and a Great Kiva.












Next, heading south again.




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