There are so many things to see in Mesa Verde NP that it's hard to pick just one. To make it easy on ourselves, we chose the biggest cliff dwelling in the park, Cliff Palace. Tickets to the guided tours sell out fast each morning, so we bought our tickets the night before.
We arrived at the site and waited as about 30 other people joined us. The park ranger showed up and started telling us about the native Indians who lived here, and how at first they built their dwellings on top of the mesas, but then later built them underneath the cliff overhangs. There are many, many dwellings like this all throughout the park.
Getting down into the dwelling involved descending dozens of steep, narrow steps, and climbing up a reproduction of a wooden ladder. I think this one was brown painted metal. We got to walk down into the dwelling, and even stand on the kiva as the ranger explained what it was used for.We walked out at the opposite end we entered, ascending more of those brown "wooden" ladders. As we went up, we could see the 700+ year old hand and footholds chiseled straight up and into the rockface, that the Indians used for entry and exit. Lucky for us we didn't have to take that way out. Hurray ladders!
We had lunch at the Spruce Tree House inside the park. Outside this building there were a couple of Indian women etching and painting small pottery bowls.
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