Thursday, July 20th, 2023

Starting mileage: 9590, Distance travelled: 50

Miles hiked: 5

We started the day with another spectacular mountain drive up onto the Mesa, complete with views down into Montezuma Valley. We did an amazing guided tour of Balcony House, an ancient cliff dwelling, with a Navajo native tour guide named Davin who was working as an intern in the park for the summer. The Navajo are one of the 26 tribes descended from the indigenous cliff dwellers of Mesa Verde and our guide made connections with his tribe’s rituals and culture and the cliff dwellers of the 13th century. We had to climb a 32-foot ladder and climb through a 18-inch-wide tunnel as part of the tour so it wasn’t for the feint of heart.

After the tour we drove to the Archeological Museum, ate lunch, explored the exhibits and watched a film about the cultural history of Mesa Verde. The architectural design of the buildings was intended to blend in with the surroundings and call back to the techniques of the cliff dwellers who came before. Several buildings in the complex were on the National Historic Register.

After eating lunch in the camper van, we hiked the Petroglyph Point trail, which we dubbed Swiss cheese mountain for all the holes and huge overhangs along the entire canyon wall. The hike started at Spruce Tree House Overlook, the third largest dwelling in the park. Our hike was narrated by the children and David imagining which little nooks and crannies would serve as bedrooms, living rooms, etc. when we moved into the cliff side. Right at the halfway point of the hike, we came across the petroglyphs for which the trail is actually named, the only authentic markings accessible to the public in the park. We had a great time clambering through all the alcoves, some optional, others part of a pretty advanced trail. There was an additional bonus archeological site along the route with foundations still visible.

After we’d recovered from the 2-hour hike in the blazing sun, helped by cold refreshments, we returned to the van to take a self-guided audio car tour around the Mesa Top Loop. The stops on the tour traced the evidence of the increasingly complex dwellings designed by the indigenous inhabitants of the region. Each archeological site revealed the types of houses from 550 AD (pit houses) right up through 1300 AD (Sun Temple and Cliff Palace) when the last of the ancestral Puebloans migrated away from the area.

Our last stop of the day on our way back to the campsite was Park Point, the highest elevation in the park at 8,572 feet and home to the historic fire lookout. Conveniently, it was also home to the only cell signal in the entire park, so we were able to send our happy 80th birthday video to Grandpa before the end of the day! We also sent the following picture as proof 🙂