Our daughter spent last week at Crow Canyon Archaeology Center in Cortez, Colorado, doing archaeology stuff. She had a great time. Margie and I drove down there on Friday, picked her up on Saturday, and spent the rest of that day, and Sunday, staying in and touring about Mesa Verde N. P., which is a lot bigger and more interesting than I'd though it was. We took many pictures, we saw many cliff dwellings[1] (and even more kivas), and we learned a lot, and we had a great together.
And now we're back home. Which is also nice.
More pictures, etc., to come.
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[1] Like the one in this picture, the Cliff Palace.
Though there is a lot of interesting stuff, and history, and archaeology in the area beyond the cliff dwellings — which were actually only built, and then abandoned, in an 80-100 year period.
(Which really felt like many post-apocalyptic SF novels of my youth.)
+Laurie Ross did some intern work at archaeology sites in the mancos/cortez area many years ago, and had a lot of neat stuff to say about it.
Kind of shocked that you didn't think it was going to be interesting or that the area was huge.
Did you buy her a fedora and bullwhip?
+Stan Pedzick I knew it would be interesting, but had no idea how many cliff dwellings there were, or much about their history.
Did you two get in to see Spruce Tree (the one right by the museum), or had they already closed it?
+Scott Randel She actually had a broad-brimmed hat with her on the trip, but, well, kids these days.
When we were there, since it was September, the western loop was closed so we didn't get to see any of the places over there. We got to see Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House and Balcony House as well as several bits and bobs along the way.
Mesa Verde is a very impressive and mystical place indeed.
Its really hard to imagine, what must have happened there.
+Stan Pedzick Well, Spruce Tree House is closed for touring for the next 3-5 years while they figure out how to stabilize the overhang. 😛
The Wetherill Mesa (the western loop) is a bit more sparse in terms of sites, but that made it a lot less crowded and, to my mind, more enjoyable. Long House is just as big, and Step House is pretty accessible and requires no ticket (or crawl space).
+Frank Nestel Indeed.
Though, given how it represented increasing attempts to deal with drought and climactic pressure, we may not have to imagine for very long.
+Dave Hill did you all go through the new visitor center down at the entrance? What was it like?
+Stan Pedzick We didn't spend as much time there as we could have — we stopped by to buy the Long House tix on our way to pick up Kay, but didn't linger. It's much larger than the old visitor center (which apparently there's a lot of debate about what to do with), and quite attractive. Also, since it's at the bottom of the hill, it's easy for folk to stop by.