Today was our last day in the desert. We’ve been here for a couple of weeks and I’m actually going to miss sweating from every pore in my body by 8:30 am. I’m going to miss sand poring out of my boot at the end of each hike and the plants and animals that make the desert their home. At least our last day here was phenomenal.
Wetherill Mesa is the much less touristy part of Mesa Verde, so it scored a point right off the back. Our first tour was epic. I mentioned that very little is allowed to be explored here without a ranger. Back in December Zak scored tickets to the Mug House tour and we are so fortunate. This tour is only offered three times a week to groups of 10. Making it even more spectacular is that it is only available every five years or so. The park just doesn’t want any human destruction, so they only allow 30 people a week every five years. We are so lucky.
Ranger Luann was our guide and I really liked her. Like every other ranger she knew everything about everything, but she really allowed us to the think of the Ancestral Puebloans real people. These were real people who liked art, dancing, music, and celebrating. We have much more in common with them than not. The hike to the cliff dwelling was a good mile and included some scrambling, our favorite. There was such a narrow path as it is so infrequently traveled. Every one of these communities take my breath away when we first see them. There is such beauty in their buildings. We were able to climb about a bit and our knowledge grew as we learned more and more about these people.
We hiked the return mile with our group then departed ways. Funnily, we all headed toward Step House, one of the only self guided tours here (although there is a ranger in the dwellings to make sure everyone is behaving.) Step House is actually divided into two sections. The first being a series of four pit houses, about 600 years older than the cliff dwellings. Years ago National Geographic reconstructed one to look as it would of in the year 600 CE.
600 years after those Pueblos left the pit houses (likely to build communities on top of the mesa) they were completely covered with rock, dirt, and other natural things. Then in 1200ish, the cliff dwellings were built right next to them. So cool to think about it. Imagine building a new house on the same property as your ancestors from centuries ago, but not knowing it.
Our final tour at Mesa Verde was at Long House. It was an amazing way to wrap up our time here. Although we saw so many dwellings in two days, we learned more at each one and I never tired of looking at them. That hike was a bit more intense, but we all rocked it.
As we leave the desert I find myself reflecting a bit. We saw petroglyphs and pictographs from the Fremonts, the determination of Joseph Smith as he brought the Mormons to Utah, and the cliff dwellings and communities of Ancestral Puebloans. This made me realize that we are nothing but a tiny blip on this cultural timeline. I think about what people of the far future will read about us on sign plaques in National Parks and hope they won’t think we are too jerky to each other.
