Day 4 and 5-- Cortez, Colorado

We drove..and drove.. we stopped in Monticello, Utah and saw the temple..then drove some more..finally we made it to Cortez, Colorado and a wonderful Holiday Inn Express that had a wonderful family suite with separate rooms, a king bed for us and bunk beds for the kids. After this many days we were all ready for a little space. We spent the first afternoon/evening poking around this small town and visiting the cultural center for a little history lesson. We also stopped at the Welcome Center to buy our passes for Mesa Verde National Park. I about died when the ranger said they either take cash or out of state checks! Really? Who takes out of state checks? We had to find an ATM.

The next we headed into the park. It was amazing to climb so high on top of the mesas and thing, "the Indians used to walk this!"

 Our first stop was Cliff Palace. Probably the most photographed dwelling. This is the view from above before the hike down.

 Once you hike down the canyon, you have to climb the ladders up.

It's amazing to see these dwellings up close and walk where others walked hundreds of years ago.

 Then there's the hike back up to the car through small carved out caves and stairways.

Then lunch. I am so glad I read up on all these parks and knew we had to pack food and water in to all of them because there are no services and you are SOOOO hungry after all that hiking.

 Next we headed to Balcony House; probably the second most photographed dwelling. It was the first one discovered by a rancher about 100 years ago. This dwelling is only accessible by climbing up a 30 foot ladder. Children must be able to do it themselves--not a problem for my skirt and pink flip flop wearing girl!

 Then there are the tunnels--a tight squeeze for adults.

 Then there's the ladder at the end of that tunnel.

Then you are there! It's named because it's one of the only dwellings with a balcony. When the ranchers found it they actually crawled up inside the house and slept out on the balcony for a few days while their cattle grazed below. Pretty amazing when you figure the wood and mud holding the balcony on was over 700 years old.

 This was the view from the front of their house.

 Then there was more climbing into a series of back caves the Indians used to get from one house to the other without walking around the front. They also believe the caves collected fresh water and were used as storage in the winter.

 It was a little hard to walk down into a dark tunnel.

 Then we had to scoot through a cave on our bellies! Not easy for us grown ups! Rich's shoulders barely got through!

Then back up the ladders. It was AWESOME!

 We visited a few more dwellings and Kivas and then did a little shopping. Anja found a doll..

..and Jensen used all his money to buy a real piece of pottery. Cool!