Mesa Verde The Dwellings of the Anasazi Stowaway Magazine Have you ever thought what it would be like

to live under a cliff? When you look up, you dont see just the sky. Right above you is the edge of mountainous rock; its a new and interesting way to experience vertigo for sure. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt undertook the responsibility to preserve the works of man and created Mesa Verde National Park. The park has preserved the works of the Ancestral Puebloan people (sometimes referred to as the Anasazi). They created what is today known as the cliff dwellings. How do you get there? First things first., Yyoull need to drive to Colorado,. bBut dont expect your car to get you too far. You may drive along the top and get a distanced look at some dwellings, but to really experience anything, youll need to hike it. There are actually five different dwellings that you can visit. The Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House are all guided tours. The way to the cliff palace is long and strenuous:. tThere are ladders, uneven paths, and frequent drop offs on one side or the other. But it is worth it. When youre walking, you can touch the cliff with your left hand, feel the dusty smoothness of the rock. On your other side theres a drop, with vegetation decorating the edge. You climb up old stone steps and go through short tunnels. And in the end youve made it. Its the same feeling you get when you reach the peak of a mountain. On top of the tours to the dwellings, there are also the hikes. What do you do when you get there? You go exploring. Before you begin the hike over to cliff palace, youre on the opposite side from it. You can see the palace in the distance, hanging on the side of the cliff. You wonder how did the Puebloans even ever builtd a palace into a vertical space.? If that doesnt make you want to scour every inch of the dwellings up close, then I dont know what will. You have five different dwellings to discover and many trails to hike. It would take days to explore everything Mesa Verde National Park has to offer its visitors, and picking just one is surely a difficult task.You could spend days exploring everything, or just one to pick and choose. What are the five different dwellings like? Cliff Palace The Cliff Palace is quite possibly the largest cliff dwelling in North America. If you dont have the time to make it to all five dwellings, this might be the best choice of all of them. This is the tour I took, and it was enough to satisfy my curiosity. The entire palace consists of many levels. There are stone steps and wooden ladders to climb from one level to the next. Even though some of the walls may not be as complete as they once were, you can sense the grandeur of the palace. In addition to the many levels, there are even more rooms. The Cliff Palace consists of about 150 rooms as well as many open areas. Many of the rooms were residential, allowing over 100 Puebloans to occupy the palace at one time. Twenty-one of these rooms were for religious and ceremonial purposes. These rooms are called Kivas. The Kivas at Mesa Verde are not your

Comment [JC1]: I would add in here some detail about your own trip, maybe some details to make the essay read more like a story.

Comment [JC2]: Im just curious, how deep is the drop?

everyday room. Although much of the inside space of the palace can be accessed simply by walking through open doorways, the Kivas are underground. A ladder descends into a large round hole, and . tThe inside of thise hole has a dirt floor and stone walls, with one stone structure sitting behind the ladder. Balcony House The Balcony House is much smaller than Cliff Palace with only 45 rooms and 2 Kivas. Like the Cliff Palace, it is also relatively difficult to get to. Today, visitors can climb a ladder and crawl through a tunnel and enter into the Balcony House. If you think this is too difficult, remember that the Puebloans would have had to enter and exit by means of toe-holds on the edge of the cliff. It is believed that the Puebloans used this method of entry so as to make the Balcony House difficult to get to on purpose, making the Balcony House easy to defend. The village-like structure is tucked into a deep and somewhat wide crevice in the cliff. The Balcony House is not nearly as open as the Cliff Dwellings, undoubtedly contributing to the defense of the dwelling. Spruce Tree House In size, the Spruce Tree House is in between the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace. Its actually quite the competitor, as it is the third-largest dwelling at Mesa Verde. This dwelling consists of 130 rooms and 8 Kivas. Like the Balcony House, Spruce Tree House is well protected. If you happened to stand above it, on the ledge of the cliff, you probably wouldnt even know what loomed beneath you. Its tucked into a beautiful crevice of orange- and redcolored rocks. Across the canyon, you can see a flat-topped cliff that looks as if its a continuation of the other side. Trees and bushes dot the landscape, adding red and green to the colors of the rocks. Unlike the previous dwellings, this one can be accessed by a self-guided tour, giving you plenty of time to explore the many rooms. Long House Long House is Mesa Verdes second largest village. Its not the prettiest of the dwellings either. The stones used were not skillfully shaped to fit, making the buildings seem rough and uneven. This also made the buildings less secure than the buildings in other dwellings. The Long House was, however, very useful in its time. The village could hold around 150 people at one time. The intention of the Long House was to provide housing for those with large families. Thus the buildings were longer. The buildings are also not as close together as the other dwel lings. At Cliff Palace, for instance, the buildings feel tucked in and cozy in their space. The Long House consists of spread out buildings rather than close quarters. In order to space out these buildings, they were built on multilevel cliffs. Unlike the Cliff Palace, which is several levels on one main level of a niche, the Long House is built into three niches: one on a ledge below and two above. Step House The Step House is the fifth and final dwelling of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. The name definitely points to the structure of the dwelling. Step House consists of many layers, which look like large steps. Like the Balcony House, there are toe-holds that were used to help Puebloans move from one level to the next. Aside from the multilevel structure, another interesting aspect of the Step House is that it contains four structures called the pithouses. These

Comment [JC3]: Perhaps you could include some details about why this particular cave appealed to you. Try to show why people should take this tour. Maybe how you could feel the history that was present there, etc.

Comment [JC4]: This kind of historical detail is very interesting to me. Perhaps you could include some more factual information, such as when the Anasazi dwelt in the caves, and what happened to them that removed them from there. Comment [JC5]: Perhaps just saying After, this palace and this palace, this is the largest dwelling in the park.

Comment [JC6]: Perhaps you could recommend this tour for a certain situation. Like if you have lots of time to personally explore something, I would recommend this. Comment [JC7]: Connection? But its not Comment [JC8]: Against each other

pithouses are what later developed into the ceremonial Kiva, originally used to help Puebloans survive the harsh weather of winter. What else is there? Aside from the beautiful dwellings, there is much more to do in Mesa Verde National Park. One of the major activities is hiking. There are about eight trails to choose from. They are all listed on the parks official website. There are short trails and long trails, giving you options for time constraints and preferences. One of the longest trails is at the Morefield Trailheads, called the Prater Ridge Trail. The hike is 7.8 miles round trip, with an option to cut it short to 5 miles. One of the shortest trails is only a half of a mile long, called the Framing Terrace Trail. Each option explores the nature and beauty, and many lead you to other manmade wonders that Theodore Roosevelt hoped to preserve.

Comment [JC9]: You certainly give a lot of good information about the dwellings, but I would like to read much more about your own experience (as much as you can remember) and more reasons why I should take the trip. While all the details about the dwellings are interesting, this sort of dry information can be obtained once there, as Im sure they give out plenty of pamphlets and such. If you want to have the essay revolve around Theodore Roosevelts actions in preserving the park, you would need to include more detail and more storytelling about the situation and Roosevelts reasons. Overall, great work!