MESA VERDE - CANYONS OF THE ANCIENTS

Spruce Tree House

We drove from Moab back into Colorado to a museum near Dolores to look at an exhibition of artefacts found in the area - pottery, basket ware and a kiva (a dug-out house) from the Anasazi Indian tribe who lived in the area. On to Cortez from where we went to the Mesa Verde an area on top of a plateau where the ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) lived about 1,400 years ago. It's fascinating place - they kept improving their homes until they built sophisticated dwellings in areas in the canyons.

There are a number of dwellings like this one and where the overhang provided protection.

Gorge in the Mesa Verde

We were lucky to dodge the rain storms to shelter under the overhang when there was a downpour - including hail. The Anasazi only lived here for 100 years before disappearing and no one is quite certain what happened - other than there was a prolonged severe drought. They made beautiful baskets, pottery and jewellery, planted maize, beans and bartered with their neighbours. A sophisticated economy - this all before the Europeans arrived.