The Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde

The last official stop on our whirlwind tour of the Four Corners region last month was the Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde, where an ancient Puebloan civilization thrived for over 700 years. I visited there years ago with my family, but Pat had never explored Mesa Verde, so this was a cool experience for him. We did not plan on taking a tour of the Cliff Palace ruins, but as we were admiring the spectacular view from the overlook and regretting not buying tour tickets, a Dutch couple offered us theirs for free, saying they realized too late that they didn't have time to use them. That was so incredibly generous and unexpected! It ended up being an extremely fascinating experience, both from an archaeological and a photographic standpoint. It has been years since I was there, and I had forgotten how small and narrow the space is in which these people lived -- they must have been exceptionally tiny, not to mention sure-footed, because it would be very easy to slip and fall off into the abyss if you weren't careful. Our Park Ranger tour guide was extremely knowledgeable (and funny). We learned a lot.  I highly recommend taking a guided tour if you visit Mesa Verde.

Just as our tour was about to finish, the skies opened up and a deluge of biblical proportions hammered down onto the group. It was like Niagara Falls, just crazy amounts of rain all at once! As long as we were under the overhang, we didn't get too wet, but another tour group was bearing down on us and our Park Ranger clearly wanted to get out of there, so we had no choice but to trudge through the rain. There is only one way out, and it involves narrow stone steps, wooden ladders, and a steep, rocky incline. All of this would be challenging enough in good weather, but when you're going up and up and up, and torrents of rain are pouring into your eyes, and you're just trying not to slip and fall... it was crazy! To compound matters, I was carrying two expensive cameras and a couple of equally expensive lenses, and I was very concerned that they were going to be ruined. Thankfully one of the bodies and lenses fit into my waterproof messenger bag, and the other camera survived the deluge (there was much wiping off and lens cleaning in the car afterward!). So yeah, we got wet. REALLY wet. But it was worth it!

This photo was taken with a fish-eye lens, looking out into the canyon with my back to the ruins. As you can see, the clouds were threatening to let loose at any moment.