To start we visited the visitor center where we figured out how and when we could get to go into a cliff dwelling. We learned that you needed a guided tour and that they left every hour. We pulled up in the RV but sadly Sage was too young so dad had to sit this one out with her.
Our guide told us about what we would be doing and then we started our tour. It was a little hard getting down and then we had to climb a 32 foot tall ladder.
When we got up to the dwelling they talked about the life style of the Pueblo. A cliff dwelling like this one would have held about two to three extended families. They then showed us their older homes and how they got in and out of them. You had to climb through a small rectangular hole and some of the homes were up high so you needed to climb up a ledge to get to them. They made the ledges so strong they are still standing today 1000 years later.
We had to do a little more climbing before arriving at the more recent part of the dwelling.
There we learned that the Pueblo people started to make more advanced homes with places for worship called kivas.
A kiva had pillars along the walls to hold up a brick coated wooden roof. It had space for a fire pit along with some shelves for putting their art and jewelry. They also had a protection wall so the ladder out wouldn't catch on fire and a ventilation shaft for fresh air and to let smoke out. The hole in the middle of the kiva floor was how they connected with their gods that they believed were in the earth.
Sadly Zaddek fell off the cliff and now it is just the two of us.
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