This morning we took a tour of Balcony House at Mesa Verde National Park. The tour was very interesting and included climbing several ladders and going through tight spaces among the ancient ruins in an alcove under the mesa top. Photo is a zoom from the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail further down the canyon. This view cannot be seen from the tour or above the alcove.
View of Soda Canyon from above the alcove as we wait for our tour to begin.
A long steep ladder leading up into the alcove where Balcony House is located.
View looking up towards Balcony House from the bottom of the long ladder
Views of the ruins from the first chamber
Rock with some petroglyphs on it
We went through this narrow passageway to reach the second chamber.
Sunlight coming down into the narrow passageway.
Kiva and ruins in the second chamber:
Looking out from the back of the alcove
View to the north along Soda Canyon from the alcove
Narrow walkway and
crawling through a short tunnel to leave Balcony House.
More ladders to climb
Looking down into one of the narrow passageways
rock carved steps we climbed up and
up the last ladder at the end of the tour.
This afternoon we took a tour of Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park, another fascinating place! This view of Cliff Palace can be seen from the overlook where the tour meets. This view can be seen without taking the tour.
From the overlook of Cliff Palace, looking in the opposite direction across the canyon I could see another dwelling place (zoom).
View of Cliff Palace as we descended down to the alcove for our tour.
Views seen in Cliff Palace
View looking inside the lower door of the above photo
View of Cliff Palace as we exited the alcove from the other side
Between ladders to exit, there was a narrow passageway with stone "steps"
Last look down into Cliff Palace
