9/3/18 The Trail to the Cliff Dwellings: Part 1

The trail to the Cliff Dwellings starts on this bridge. The Cliff Dwellings are located in the cliff in the center of the photo. As a volunteer, I have to walk this trail every day to get to the top of the cliff where the Cliff Dwellings are. The trail is one mile in length.

The Cliff Dwellings are located in this canyon carved by the river.

This Blanket Flower and many other flowers and grasses line the trail.

The trail winds through this shady valley.

Above the valley are the cliffs . You can see a big cave on the face of this cliff. It's called "Cave #7." There is no evidence that people ever lived in this cave.

Along the trail you can see squirrels like this one gathering acorns and other nuts to store for food in the winter.

The trail follows the stream bed which is on the right in this photo. As you walk the trail, you can hear the water in the stream.

I didn't count them, but I'm told that from the beginning of the trail to the Cliff Dwellings live 180 steps! AS you see they are not uniform in height, so you have to be careful and watch where you step.

The steps are steep and the views are spectacular!  Look carefully to see the wall in the Cliff Dwelling. (It's a little to the left of center in the dark part of the cliff.)

At the top of this set of stairs are the Cliff Dwellings.

I'm standing at the top of the trail, level with the Cliff Dwellings. You can see the wall of one of the dwellings near the center of the photo.

You can really see the wall in Cave #2. The T-shaped opening is a door. The smaller openings are windows. You can see two wooden beams sticking out of the wall. They helped support a ceiling.  

Another view of Cave #2. 

The view looking at the cliffs across from the Cliff Dwellings. Notice the cactus and its red fruit growing
near the front of Cave #2.

I'm told that the cactus fruit is very tasty! The Cliff Dwellings National Monument store sells Cactus Fruit Gummy bears, licorice and chocolate candy bars. I'll try these and let you know how they taste!

Inside Cave #1 you can see these "walls" built of bricks and mortar. These "rooms" are pretty small, so they were probably used for storage.

Look carefully at the pattern of bricks in this photo. The bricks are laying on their sides which means the
wall that was there collapsed and fell forward.

Most of the walls in the caves do not go all the way to the top of the cave. This was done on purpose to let the smoke from the fires out.

This is what you see when you look out of the cave,
man-made walls and natural cave.

From inside the cave, you can look into a "room."  On the floor of the room you see a sort of U-Shaped set of bricks. That would have been a fireplace. You can also see a window, or doorway, that looks out of the room. It has stones piled in it so people don't climb in and out of the structure.

The people who lived here probably didn't care much about the spectacular view, but I did. Unlike me, they probably located their dwellings here for protection from the weather and their enemies. 

Another view of the inside of the cave. What surprised me the most when I first saw the dwellings was their size! The cave is enormous and is said to house something like 40 rooms!

There are pictographs like this on the outside of the cave. No one really knows what the pictographs mean.

That long straight pole is really a ladder. You have to go down the ladder to exit the dwellings.

The view from the bottom of the ladder.

Looking back at the dwellings.

Another view of the dwellings. In this view, you can see that the dwellings are on different levels.

The trail leaving the dwellings.
(Continued in Part 2.)