The four state tour

It's a real for state tour - Starting out in Utah, spending several days in Arizona, a night in New Mexico and a night in Colorado.

Mesa Verde is truly amazing. The extent of the building is incredible. Some of the complexes had more than fifty rooms. Four storied towers, round subterranean kivas, round lookouts, impressive masonry – everywhere you looked were impressive sights. The cliff dwellings were amazing as they were neither accessible from the mesa top not the valley bottom. They evidently went to and from the dwellings via foot and hand holes pecked into the rock. I’m guessing babies didn’t leave until they were several years old, or there were a lot of unfortunate accidents.

javascript:void(0)

The cliff dwellings were in the minority. Pithouses were more common. The architecture allowed both air flow and storage of grains and game. The museum was really nice. I was impressed with the weaving of clothing and sandals. They weaved yucca fibers, human hair, and feathers. There was an intricate doll board and even a child’s tea set. Woven sandals were impressive as well. Yucca fibers were boiled or soaked and then pounded to expose the inner fibers. These fibers were also used to produce rope, snares, mats, baskets, belts, and much more. Yucca plants were also used as a food source and as a source of soap made from the roots. The way the plants were used in so many ways was amazing.

The dioramas of Indian life were so well done, a stark contrast from the ones the kids had to do for social studies projects.















This is the Cliff Palace. I'll post some of our pictures when we get home, but this will have to do for now...