Tuesday May 20, 2014

Non-Travel Day

 

This morning we again headed north on US Rt . 24 to the
town of “Manitou Springs” and the “Manitou Cliff Dwellings”. This is a privately owned property containing the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians that lived there from 1100 A.D. to
1300 A.D. and a “Pueblo” building built in 1898, and lived in until 1984. This is one of the most accessible examples of cliff dwelling architecture anywhere; we were able to climb through all of
the rooms to see how they lived, the rooms and passages were all small from our prospective as they were only between 4 to 5 feet tall. It is amazing to see how they constructed
their dwellings up on the mountain side, and to imagine how these small people were able to accomplish all that they did using only primitive tools. The pueblo building is now being used as a museum and gift shop, but you could see the how the building was constructed and imagine how it served the occupants. Visiting the cliff dwellings was a memorable experience. The afternoon was spent doing domestic chores and preparing to leave on the next leg of our trip in the morning.