Leah climbing the 30 foot ladder with the ranger into Balcony house
Inside Balcony House at Mesa Verde National Park
The small tunnell we all had to fit through- even Daddy!
Spruce Tree House
Today was our last full day as we visited our last National Park. It is called Mesa Verde National Park and has hundreds of dwellings from the Pueblos that are 800 years old. We decided to start off by doing a ranger guided tour at a place called Balcony House. I was a little nervous as it required a climb up a 30 foot ladder just to get to the site and going through a couple of tunnels to get from room to room. Leah was picked as the first one to go up the ladder with the ranger which was really cool. There were about 40 of us in the group and that ladder was scary. The drop below would have you falling off a cliff but it was the only way into the huge alcove that had the dwelling. When we got in there it was really amazing to see the site…it had a lot of rooms and several kivas. The ranger gave us a lot of interesting facts and then we had to climb through this little tunnel to exit and up 2 more ladders to get out. The kids just loved it and thought it was so fun. We then went to a self-guided dwelling called Spruce house which was similar. The kids got to climb into a kiva this time which was fun. We then stopped in the museum where the kids got their Jr. Ranger badges and we looked at a lot of the exhibits. This is a really neat park with a lot of interesting historical facts…it is wild to imagine how people lived in these canyons and alcoves and how different life has changed. After the park it was back to camp to start packing up. We played games outside including horseshoes and UNO and had our traditional celebration feast of steaks, fish and mashed potatoes. Time to go back home to reality…we all feel like we have been gone forever and miss our family, friends, dog, and much larger home! I will miss the sleeping in, simplicity, being active outdoors, intimate time with the 4 I love, and marveling at God's creation. It has been an amazing vacation!
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