We are camped at Target Tree forest service campsite. Here is our spot. One of the target trees shown above. The Ute’s used to camp here and target practice on trees, this one they stripped the bark and harvested the cambium and pine pitch.
This bronze at the visitors center is an Indian climbing a cliff face with firewood on his back. John climbed up on the wall to photograph it.
We went on the Balcony house tour. Here are tourist climbing the ladder up to the cliff dwelling. The second ladder we had to climb inside the dwelling.
John checking out the view. And the view.
Two kivas. To exit the Balcony House we had to crawl through a tunnel, then up a couple more ladders.The last photo is of the Cliff Palace. We toured it too, we only got to walk in front of it, not through it. It is the largest of the cliff dwellings in the park.
This is the Cliff Palace from across the canyon. The next day we hiked the petroglyph trail to the largest petroglyph panel in the park. It was a cool trail, we walked along the top of the cliff for half way, then went to half way down the cliff face and walked along it.
Below the face the trail did all kinds of cool things , we went down lots of stairs the CCC built, then through cracks. Here is John during our lunch break in the shade.
Along the trail we saw this ruin and a granary. Then we came to this key hole door at the Spruce Tree house.
The Spruce Tree house from above. It is the third largest cliff dwelling in the park, and the best preserved. Most of the walls are the original walls, with no restoration. It is a self guiding tour, so it was packed with people.
Spruce tree house views.
John going into one of the kivas. They date the ruins by dating the wood used in the construction. They can tell the rings of the drought years and the wet years, and they compare it to charts and it tells them what year the trees were cut.
The Square tower house has the tallest building in the park, 4 stories. At the next view point you could see 5 cliff houses, they were very close together. There are 4,000 ruins in the park, 600 of them are cliff dwellings.
A curly yucca, purple flower, my hand in one of the many holes in the rocks, a fire cracker penstamen, white asylum, and a fly on a white flowering vine.
Holes in the rock caused by water, some pots that were found in the ruins, white flowering vine and lizard.
The Temple of the Sun was built on top of the cliff. It was never finished. This is a diagram of it. Another pot and lizard.
Ended the day in Cortez, Colorado at the Main Street Brewery.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.