Square Tower House

I had an appointment at eight A.M.  Early.  And it was at Mesa Verde, which meant I had to leave about two hours before my appointment.  Dark thirty!  I had timed everything perfectly, but hadn't counted on one thing.  I left in the dark.  And usually at night, I only drive forty-five miles an hour.  I don't want to hit any animals, and there are a lot of them around here.  So, as tired as I was that early, I drove faster than normal and tried to pay even more close attention than usual.  It all went well, and I got there in plenty of time.  

Once in the park and on the twisty road, I slowed down for a coyote to cross the road in front of me.  He came really close to my car and then turned by the driver's side.  He was no more than six feet away.  I opened the window and told him how beautiful he was.  He stopped, looked at me, and tilted his head.  I'm sure he was wondering what another crazy tourist was saying to him.  Without further ado, he turned and ambled off in no particular hurry.  It was awesome!

My appointment was for a semi-private tour of a "closed-to-the-public" archeological site:  Square Tower House.  Anyone can take pictures of it from far above, but this special tour was for only ten people to hike right down to it.  My kinda tour!  At one of my favorite places:  Mesa Verde.

Square Tower House from above.  You can see how far down it is.

Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and started off with a lecture on the history of the site and the area.  Then, we were off.  Almost immediately, we had to climb down a long wooden ladder.  One person freaked out and had to go back!  The rest of us walked on.  After a while, we came to another ladder.  I was the first down on this one.  On the side of the cliff, you could see the "Moki stairs" or the ancient handholds that the ancients used when they lived here.

See the little indentation right above the shorter ladder pole?  That's a "Moki" step.

Then, we came to a cool place.  Our guide said that it's the route that the ancients took, but that we didn't have to take it today.  It was a very narrow passageway between two rocks.  He said that you had to have the mentality of a ten year old to want to do it.  My hand was the first one up! He explained how to do it . . . because if you started off in the wrong direction, you would get stuck!  He spoke from experience!  

With instructions in hand, I approached the narrow slit between the rocks.  There were a few people behind me.  At one point, I wasn't exactly stuck, but I couldn't go on.  I finally managed to raise my leg slightly and move on.  The whole way through you had to be sideways, and even then it was a tight squeeze.  But, the other cool part, besides being squished between rocks that ancient peoples had been squished between, is that when you came to the ruin, you came to it from above, rather than below like the other hikers.  The picture shows someone behind me coming through.  I had already come out the other side.

This isn't me, but you can see how narrow it is!

Square Tower House was awesome!  There was a nice kiva, and some pottery shards lying around.  Our guide told us more about the site and showed us different things.  When it was time to go back, he asked if anyone was going to go through the crack on the way back.  I said that I would if someone else would.  (About five people had gone through on the way there.)  Some young guy said he would, so up we went.  I started through first, and he got stuck about halfway and turned back.  He had to go around and when he joined up with the rest of the group, he said it was his hips and not his gut that had prevented him from going on!

After that, I went to the visitors center to sign up for a tour to my favorite ruin there, Balcony House.  They had one ticket left for the time I wanted!  I thanked them for saving it for me!

This was a huge tour . . . maybe thirty or forty people.  Before we got started, this new guide said he recognized me.  I said, "Yes, you've been my ranger before."  And he said, "No, we're neighbors."  I had forgotten.  He lived in Mancos where I used to live before I moved back to Durango.  I went to Mesa Verde right before I moved and he remembered that.  He asked about moving and about my dog and other stuff he remembered.  Why can't guys my age be that considerate?!  Well, they can . . . I just have to find 'em.

Anyway, the tour was as nice as always, including the twenty foot double ladder, and crawling through a narrow passage on the way out.  But, after slipping through that crack earlier that morning, the narrow passage felt really wide!

All in all, it was a wonderful day at one of my very favorite-est of places!