Day 1 - Mesa Verde - Spruce Tree House

The Spruce Tree House tour was right by the museum. It was a paved path way descending down. There were two things you could stop and see on the way down. One was a little ruin area under a small cliff, not sure what was there and the other was the spring they used to use to get water. I didn't see any water there anymore. In 1905 they reconstructed a roof on one of the Kiva's. They had it how it use to be when the Indians lived in it. You were able to go down in this one and see what it was like. It was very dark, the only light was the area where the ladder came down in the middle. It was really interesting to be able to go in one.

The kids going down into the Kiva

After the Spruce Tree House we went to the Museum. There were a lot of artifacts that they had found at Mesa Verde. Some of them were burned. Apparently the Kiva's were a tinder box. With the fire in the middle and the wood roof, it would dry out. They found burned sandals, pots, tools, etc. The one thing that I thought was really interesting to have found was a pair of crutches. It was interesting to walk around. They had pictures of what it use to look like when they found the sites and the pottery they found was really pretty.

The kids were really tired, so I suggested we do the Mesa Top loop and call it a day. It really is a neat little drive that you can go on. The sites are right next to the road, not a lot of hiking involved and most of the stuff is less then a minute apart to stop and see. There were overlooks you could see of Square tower, Fire House and Fire Temple. There were a lot of kivas and villages. The last thing on the Loop was the Sun Temple. They really aren't sure what it was used for. There were no doors getting into it. I don't have any pictures of this area, I don't know why I didn't take any. We had this guide we bought for 50 cents, so we used that when we were in this area. Jalyse really got into the guides, and she started to collect them from every area we went to.

On the way out we saw the wild horses, from the earlier post. We had a great first day at Mesa Verde!