3 states 1 weekend- FINALLY

Hello everyone... I know it has been a while!!!   I haven't been on the internet on my weekends...

Our First stop at Mesa Verde was Step House.  Step House got its name from a set of prehistoric steps that would have been used to get down to the house from the mesa top.  Also interesting about Step House is it shows two different periods of occupation.  Older occupation living in pit houses and later living in a cliff dwelling.  

After jumping onto the tram, Jenna and I went exploring the Mesa some more.  One tram stop was above Kodak house.  One of the first researchers went to Kodak house and recorded what he found with immense accuracy.  The house was named after his photographic equipment of choice.... A Kodak Brownie.  

After that the tram took us to Long House.  Long House has a tour that will take you down where you are in front of the cliff dwelling.  Unfortunately there was no time to go on this hike.  

Our lunch stop was at the museum at Spruce Tree House.  Spruce Tree House gets its name for the spruce trees that grow in the area.  There is a natural spring near there.  This is only place where you can climb down into a Kiva.  ( I did not do this.)

Cliff Palace is one of the icons of Mesa Verde.  Again there is a ranger guided hike to Cliff Palace where you walk in front of the palace.  It is one of the largest Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde.

Shannon who was one of the SCA interns at Wupatki led our hike at Balcony House.  Balcony House gets its name from all the "balconies" on the cliff dwelling.  After descending down several stairs you have to climb a 37' ladder.  Here you can see I beat Shannon to the top of the ladder.

Picture of Balcony House, unfortunately you can not see all of the "balconies".

To leave Balcony House, you have to go through a narrow passage.  As you can see we needed to get the butt shot of me squeezing through the narrow passage.  The passage is maybe 10 feet long but is a tight squeeze for someone my size!

Finally to leave you must ascend 2 ladders and some natural stairs.  Here Jenna took a picture from the bottom of one of the ladders.






Stay tuned.... later in the week when I find the CD I will post pictures from Canyon de Chelly.