Day 17: Travel back it time to the Cliff Palace

We arrived in Cortez, CO in the afternoon, and quickly packed up for a twilight tour of the Cliff House in Mesa Verde National Park. After a stop at the Visitor Center (had to get Junior Ranger booklets, of course), we journeyed to the trailhead. Ranger Luann led us down the stairs and ladders and provided the group with a wealth of context, history, and details about the Puebloan people and the brief century of time when the cliff dwellings were used. The kids were fascinated that the four-story structures here were likely the tallest "sky scrapers" in all North America at the time they were built (around 1200 A.D.). The precision they used to fabricate straight bricks and construct straight walls with right angles in those times is incredible. We soaked in the history and presence of the ancient community space, and then drove back down to our campsite through a spectacular lightning storm.