Day 13: Mesa Verde

I woke up and drove into Mesa Verde National Park. I had ranger-led tours starting at 1:00pm so I took my time on the way, stopping to see the viewpoints along the drive. I had tours to Cliff Palace and Balcony House.

In both tours and the video in the visitor center, they stressed that the old narrative — that the people living in Mesa Verde had disappeared one day — was false. The people had in fact migrated south and formed pueblos along the way. All in all, it was a cool experience where I learned a lot. The climbs into and out of the cliff dwellings weren’t technical, but they definitely required some mobility. The rangers gave warnings before each tour, and even so, a woman in the tour before ours got stuck and needed to be rescued, causing us to wait an extra half hour — though that just meant more time for questions, so I didn’t mind.