Today we went to view the cliff houses closer to the Farview Lodge. We had been unable to get tour tickets for the Long House, so we settled for hiking to view points. There are ranger led hikes to Long House and Balcony House.
This is Balcony House. Note the ladders in the bottom right -- that's part of the tour. Not visible in this photo is a very narrow passageway that required crawling the last time we were here. And two more ladders off to the left. We decided not to get tickets for a ranger tour here.
Here's the Balcony House in situ. We're viewing this from the Soda Canyon Overlook, a hike of about 1.5 miles roundtrip.
Soda Canyon
Soda Canyon has a few other houses not accessible.
You can see a tour group going up the first set of ladders.
Pinon pine
More ruins
Square Tower House
Finally, we visit the Cliff Palace area, which has many houses surrounding the central palace.
And this is Cliff Palace. NPS: " It is thought that Cliff Palace was a social, administrative site with high ceremonial usage." It has 150 rooms and was built and occupied 1192-1260 CE.
On the mesa across Cliff Palace is the Sun Temple.
An exotic car club was rallying across the Southwest, and they were spending the night in Mesa Verde. They were all drinking on the lounge deck when we had our dinner there. In the picture below, one of the cars is ours and driven from Florida. (Note the Porsche in the background -- there were lots of them around.)
We stayed in the historic Strater Hotel, right next to the railroad. Here's today's early train setting off. Wish we were aboard, it was a great trip.
Down at street level our engine from yesterday prepares to make the run again.
It's a very short drive from Durango to Mesa Verde, and then
you begin climbing several thousand feet up to the top of the mesas
where the cliff dwellers lived from about 600 to 1300 CE.
We put on our boots and hiked to the Step House dwelling. This is a small house, holding about 30-40 people, probably an extended family.
Ranger Mike was on duty protecting the ancient dwellings from modern pillagers. Cynthia spent nearly an hour talking to him.
As we completed the loop trail we saw several other sites in the distance, not accessible to the public. There were lots of dwellings within the park area forming several neighborhoods.
At the bottom of the rock formation is the Mushroom House. With careful observation you can seen the brickwork and doorway of the small house.
The earlier communities in the Mesa Verde area lived on top of the mesas. Here's a kiva and living rooms for an early house.
In the seventh century they recognized the necessity to store and save the available water. This is an early reservoir, about 150 feet across.
Another kiva
The narrow gauge railroad from Durango to Silverton offers daily passenger trips. It just recently reopened after shutdowns due to washouts of the track and summer fires. Genuine steam engines and flashy fall colors make for an interesting trip. We took over 2500 pictures during the train ride, so it took some time to pick out the best. And then wifi performance wasn't great in the National Parks (yet to come), so it's been awhile since I posted.
Seen at the Mac's where we had breakfast before boarding (it's right next to the station). You're not prepared for the backcountry of rugged Colorado without your tent, sleeping bag, food and Cuisinart.
Coal burning with cinders flying, the train consumes about 5 tons of coal in a trip -- shoveled by the fireman up in the engine.
All aboard and ready to roll
Just getting started, still in Hermosa Valley.
Everybody loves to see the train go by
Part of the washout -- that used to be two tennis courts.
Train photography is a big event as we go by
We rode in the Silver Vista car with plexiglass paneled roof. We had a porter, Dakotah, serving drinks and commentary during the ride.
The train follows the Animas River
We made a stop in the wilderness to drop off some hikers.
High enough for the aspen to show
The train stops for two hours in Silverton allowing time for lunch. We went to Handlebars, notable for its food and pithy sayings.
Main street Silverton after the movie shooting. Wonder how many storefronts have new paint?
Heading back down away from Silverton, these were serious photographers. They even had a drone up photographing us.
Three times during the trip the trains stops for water. The fireman takes a break from shoveling coal to pull down the spout and load up on water.
One reason for narrow gauge railroads is the cuts through the hill can be narrower. Little extra cutting was done here.
A couple of young horses were running in the field.
Back to Durango
Here's the Balcony House in situ. We're viewing this from the Soda Canyon Overlook, a hike of about 1.5 miles roundtrip.
Soda Canyon
Soda Canyon has a few other houses not accessible.
You can see a tour group going up the first set of ladders.
Pinon pine
More ruins
Square Tower House
Finally, we visit the Cliff Palace area, which has many houses surrounding the central palace.
And this is Cliff Palace. NPS: " It is thought that Cliff Palace was a social, administrative site with high ceremonial usage." It has 150 rooms and was built and occupied 1192-1260 CE.
On the mesa across Cliff Palace is the Sun Temple. 
An exotic car club was rallying across the Southwest, and they were spending the night in Mesa Verde. They were all drinking on the lounge deck when we had our dinner there. In the picture below, one of the cars is ours and driven from Florida. (Note the Porsche in the background -- there were lots of them around.)
