Mesa Verde part 1

After the snow melted we went looking at cliff dwellings in the park.  Ruins date from 600 A.D. to 1250 or so, when the residents decided to move south where it wasn't so darn cold. I can see their point....  

Up until recently, the cliff dwelling residents were called Anasazi, but it turns out that translates to something their descendants don't much appreciate, so the park service now has been requested to call them 'ancestral puebloans'. It's a bit of a tongue twister, but that's ok- people get to decide what they are called.

Early homes were built on the Mesa tops.

Then they got fancy, and tucked entire villages under stone overhangs:

Spruce tree house- the ladder leads down to a room called a Kiva. Ceremonial gathering room of sorts.

David in the Kiva.