Mesa Verde National Park

Tuesday, June 1st Mesa Verde (Green Table) National Park

Bill: Having planned this trip back in SCC, I knew that somewhere I was going to need an oil change in the car. It was time as we had put approximately 4000 miles on the car since leaving Florida. Having no Lexus dealers anywhere near us, I selected JiffyLube which was recommended by our waiter and the motel receptionist. I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism of the JiffyLube staff.

Eleanor: Now that you know all about our oil change, let me get back to our visit to Mesa Verde N.P. There is work being done at practically all the national parks, but this time it was road work and that cost us in time spent stopped in one lane traffic guided by a flagman. We lost over 30 minutes total during two stops between the entrance gate and the 23 miles to the Visitor Center. All these miles were spent winding ever upward to the green mesa at 8000 feet altitude. How the roadmen can operate their huge machinery and sometimes install metal barriers on the edge of space is beyond me.

After the introductory film at the center, we spent time in the attached museum learning how the Ancestral Puebloan Indians grew crops and made tools for hunting and gathering. We then walked 1/2 mile down over 100' to a preserved cave dwelling, shown in two attached photos. This dwelling, and others like it, is much larger than the ones at Gila N.P. There are over 100 rooms in the largest ones! The openings in the walls are actually doors, which seems strange, since these people were not all that tall. We could have climbed down a vertical ladder into a circular kiva, a room where religious ceremonies were held, but we declined. We had that 1/2 mile trek back up 100' to save our energy for. We were happy they had resting spots along the way. It must be the thin air; it can't be our age that had us huffing and puffing.

We drove to another area and viewed more kivas and pithouses, where fires were built. The roofs were off so we could see how life was lived. Many roofed pithouses caught fire centuries ago. The kivas have a hole in the floor to lead to the eternal underground. Exiting that area, we had the misfortune of just missing the one way trip down the mesa. The young flagman told us it would be about 1/2 hour before our turn would come again, so we turned the car off and had a snack. Bill had a good time chatting with the flagman and people in other cars. I thought one man would blow his stack about the delay, but our visit was over and we were in no big hurry, so we took it in stride. All in all, a wonderful day.