Yea!! It worked!!
In Cortez we found our motel, our least favorite of the trip. Then we located Matilda's motel for the next day. It seemed very nice. It looked as though she'd have a good time there while we were at Mesa Verde.
The next morning we dropped Matilda off and headed to Mesa Verde National Park.
The stone communities built into the canyon walls are amazing. About 1,400 years ago the Ancestral Puebloans came to this location. They farmed on the mesa above. They got water from a stream far below. The canyon walls protected their adobe bricks from weather. This is Cliff Palace.
A Kiva, or living space always had a fire pit in the center and a vent for fresh air.
There was a small hole in in the floor called a sipapu. This was the symbolic entrance where people had come from the underworld.
There was one three story section.
Here's a view looking out from a kiva.
We had stairs and ladders to climb out. The original inhabitants had only toe and finger holes.
With the altitude (some 7,000 ft.) I was breathing hard when I got to the top.
