An adventure nearing completion

9/17:

Today was my last day of adventuring before the drive home. Very bittersweet, but I think Jane and I are ready for some rest.

I started the morning with a tour of Balcony House. The cliff dwelling has a really difficult-to-get-to location midway up a cliff. Even with trails built, there was still a section that required a 32-foot ladder climb to proceed. Back when Ancestral Puebloans were living here, they climbed up (or down) to this place via a series of carved hand- and toe-holds. Crazy!

I struck up a conversation with a paleontology enthusiast on the way down so the company was good. and our tour guide was amazing! Ranger David had a real gift for making the ancient culture of these people come alive - and he had a great sense of humor too. The tour was more extensive than the Cliff Palace tour and we were allowed to wander around the ruins pretty freely.

You can see people climbing up to the ruins

View of more of the ruins through a cool square window

A giant kiva

Guess nobody worried about falling off the edge back then

To leave, we had to crawl through a short tunnel that appeared to be designed purely to make people look silly. Then it was up more ladders back to the top of the mesa. Awesome experience! I liked Balcony House a lot better than Cliff Palace simply because there was more to explore and experience, instead of just seeing the front face.

I ate my lunch in jane's shade and chatted with car enthusiasts as they came to take pictures. Then we packed up and headed on to the Mesa Top Loop, which records 600 years of architectural development by the Ancestral Puebloans. Some really cool ruins to see there as well!

Dwellings built into two alcoves stacked on top of one another

Check out the "staircase" up to the second alcove in the middle there... gotta be a good climber!

Finally, I topped off the day with a quick hike of the Far View Sites, which preserve many excellent ruins of the latest Puebloan architectural achievements in this area.

Kitchen area with food storage bins! Way cool

Tower with some keyhole-shaped kivas nearby

My exploration was cut short by the arrival of an afternoon storm, so I had to head back to the car. On my way back a big 8-pointer buck still in velvet hopped across the trail right in front of me - guess he was trying to find shelter from the storm too!

I stopped at the cafe again and stayed for a few hours waiting for the storm to pass. Fortunately I was pretty much all done for the day anyways so I didn't mind the storm. Two days of ruins is more than enough for me - I much prefer geology and landscapes, I've found.

My campsite was quite sodden when I got back to it - not a good idea to leave cardboard outside during a storm, apparently. Who knew? So that's where I leave you all. I've got some stuff to clean up and pack before I leave tomorrow. Kelly signing out.