Hiking through History Colorado by Robert Hurst

Author:Robert Hurst
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493022939
Publisher: Falcon Guides

The Hike

The near-universal reaction of the tourists who attempt to hike this loop is fascinoyance. What’s fascinoyance, you ask? Fascinoyance is the perfect combination of two seemingly exclusive emotions, fascination and annoyance.

On the Petroglyph Point Trail loop, people expect the fascination. There is much here that fascinates. The annoyance, on the other hand, sneaks up on you. Hikers here tend to get annoyed when they find out that the route is much more strenuous and much trickier, and so takes a lot longer, than they expected. These same people might enjoy a tough hike as much as the next person, but in this case the Park Service literature has led them to expect a quick jaunt around the area. So, fascinoyance.

In fact, you may be experiencing fascinoyance right now as you read this.

No doubt about it, this is a great little hike. Start from the Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum—better yet, start in the museum. The museum is filled with amazing artifacts and information and is a bit of a historical artifact in its own right. In 1924 John D. Rockefeller Jr. came to Mesa Verde National Park with his three sons and toured the biggest dwellings with the park superintendent guiding. Rockefeller was impressed and amazed. In such a mood, when he learned that Congress had appropriated nothing for the park’s new museum project, he offered some of his private fortune to make it happen.

The massive area of Mesa Verde National Park contains over 600 cliff dwellings among almost 5,000 separate archaeological sites, according to the Park Service. Ancient structures at Mesa Verde, including cliff dwellings, pit houses, dams, walls, reservoirs and farming terraces, among other things, were created from around 600 to 1300 AD. The Spruce Tree House and other spectacular cliff dwellings were built and occupied during the final century of occupation.

At some point very late in their existence here, the people of Mesa Verde decided to pack themselves into these alcoves hanging over the canyons. They moved into the rocks, like pigeons. Why? The obvious answer is fear. Defense.

Some have wondered if the reason for the move could be even simpler. Might the truth be kinder and gentler? Maybe they found it was cool, as in awesome, to live in the cliffs. It is cool, you can see. Cozy. Neat. Even today people enjoy living in houses that are perched on cliffs and mountains, for no apparent practical reason. Not for defensive purposes, that’s for sure. Maybe they enjoy the solitude or pretty views. And there is status associated with living in such places.

It is also literally much cooler in these alcoves. This is particularly obvious at Spruce Tree House. When it’s 95 degrees on the sunbaked mesa top, it’s about 20 degrees cooler tucked into the cliff in a shady canyon. There are real advantages to living in the shade in a place like this.

Living down here also brought people much closer to a great water source, a seep spring at the head of the canyon. Springs and canyons go together around here.

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