We had planned to leave today for Moab UT, but all the RV parks I called there were booked. Things are busier than usual in this part of the country for this time of the year. Good weather? Improving economy? Tourists avoiding California because of the drought there?

Whatever the reason, we have another day here, so we went back up to “Cuesta” Verde to see some things we didn’t have time for on Wednesday, starting with the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. There were exhibits of prehistoric artifacts

and a film on the development of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, but the most interesting thing to me was a series of dioramas illustrating the changes in the lifestyles of the people over the 700 years they lived in this area, during which time epic advancements took place.

Then we went outside to hike down a trail

that led us to Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling.

While of course the descendants of the Puebloans never forgot that the cliff dwellings of their ancestors were here, this one was first discovered by settlers in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. This is what it looked like when Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution came to study, excavate, and preserve it:

Dr. Fewkes removed the debris of fallen walls and roofs, stabilized the remaining walls,

and rebuilt a stone kiva roof that had fallen in so that visitors can climb down into the kiva. For some reason we were allowed to climb around in this cliff dwelling much more than at Cliff House, and we did. This is looking up through one of the towers (a floor would have been where you see the wood):

As at Cliff House, the stone masonry blocks are expertly chiseled and mortared.

We were able to look down into one of the eight kivas,

and then to climb down into the one with the restored stone roof.

It had a wonderful ambiance, no doubt cool in summer and warm in winter with a small fire and the thermal mass of the rock to keep in the heat. These rooms were where sacred ceremonies took place, but they weren’t reserved only for those; they were also kind of like family rooms, where people gathered for various purposes. We saw some of the features that were present since the days of the pit houses: a fire circle in the middle, chimney and deflector to direct the air, a stacked wood ceiling and a shelf all around.

Also a rectangular recess that they always had, purpose unknown; Patrick says it was for the flat-screen TV.