How to Truly Live in Nature

The last park on my agenda was Mesa Verde National Park in Southwest Colorado. Both Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks were amazing and full of adventure, but this stop was focused on a deeper understanding of ancient civilizations. The parks namesake literally means green table. While this accurately describes its landscape, it disquises what the park has become known for; cliff dwellings. The amazingly preserved structures of the ancient Pueblo Natives offers a glimpse of what life was like in this part of the world over 1400 years ago. Mesa Verde's main purpose is to preserve these ancient relics so people can personally experience how this amazing group of people lived intertwined with nature.

It is hard to imagine why the Ancient Puebloans wanted to live among these cliffs isn't it. During the time that their people made this place home, the plateaus boasted fertile soils for planting and a unique mixture of soil and sand that they used to sculpt tools and eventually homes.

Ancient history that is believed to describe the Ancient Puebloans journey

to the Mesa and also different parts of their life and culture.

The lines are believed to mark the journey of the Ancient Puebloans in some sort-of ancient map. Along the way are illustrations of different things they encountered.

While some are easy to pick out, such as mountains, a frog, or a snake,
others are harder to distinguish.

These are stones found during an archeological dig that they used to mill corn

and other grains. Maize was a staple as well as potatos.

The Kiva or spiritual room for the Ancient Puebloans. This room was always covered, unlike here, with mud and timber and was used for praying, weaving, or meeting. The large bowl in the floor was a fire ring, the small hole at the bottom of the photo is the sipapu (where the first human came from), the short wall by the fire ring was a deflector wall to keep wind from disrupting the fire, and the opening behind the deflector wall is ventilation to vent the smoke from the fire.

This is a picture of where Ancient Puebloans would put prayer sticks in the Adobe-like mortar of the walls. Prayer sticks were often for rain, a prosperous hunt, or to heal the sick.

This is a great example of how these structures were put together with materials that were available to them on the mesa. It was unbelievable how these structures could stand so well after 800 years. I wonder if many of today's homes could last that long?

This is a view inside one of the rooms in Cliff Palace. Usually, one family would share a room that was roughly 6'x6' and 5' tall. That means at times the 100+ Cliff Palace could have held more that 600 people!

Looking down from the mesa upon part of Cliff Palace. The towers

were said to be multi-purpose; sometimes acting as food storage

for winter months when there were fewer families here.

Another Kiva, with odd disks that were found in another archeological dig.

Many believe they are ornaments of sorts.

Looking up at the amazing Palace. These people were definitely in good shape.

Cliff Palace was believed to be a spiritual center and not always a

living quarters. It was said to possibly be a place where many families would gather for

rituals or meetings with other tribes on important matters.

Cliff Palace. The parks largest and most elaborate dwelling.