Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America.
It has 150 rooms. It has what we quote 21 kivas, but
there are also 2 "kiva-like" rooms.
You can actually look at it from and overlook
and see into almost every room.
When we get to Cliff Palace and you're waiting for the tour
you are at the overlook for it so people can be
looking down at it before the tour even starts.
Which is not true at Balcony House or Long House.
It looks like a whole city. It looks like a city much more than a palace.
And it was a city rather than a palace.
In my opinion, it's the best archaeological site we have on the continent.
After gathering the group at the platform,
we begin down the trail.
The trail was cut in the 20s and 30s and it's cut right into the sandstone.
You go down some beautiful steps and then up a 10-foot-tall ladder
And then you're in the site.
And we gather the group in a small alcove and we sit.
And for 15 minutes we just look at the site, and we marvel together,
and we take questions about the site.
It's a great launching point to talk about not only what Cliff Palace was like
800 years ago, but the whole Four Corners Region.
It's a good launching point to talk about what the entire continent
looked like 800 years ago.
And from that point, we then walk with visitors directly underneath the architecture.
When I first started giving tours of the site,
I didn't really fully appreciate that middle stop,
because you're standing directly under the architecture so really all you're
seeing are these giant walls.
But now I realize that probably is one of the most impressive
parts of the whole site.
Because when you're standing across canyon looking at Cliff Palace
or even from the overlook looking down,
you don't quite understand how large the walls are.
But when you're underneath, those walls are so large
you can't even see the entire site.
And you get to look at each individually crafted block of sandstone
that was crafted 800 years ago,
and realize how much time and energy the Pueblo society invested
in these sites.
They built these sites so grand that they were drawing people in
from all over 800 years ago.
And those walls are still drawing people in from even further places
800 years later.
From there we continue on up the steps,
and we actually enter the site at that point.
We actually get to walk up and around several kivas and look into
a room with original plasters.
The kiva structure, a lot of people are kind of mystified by it
when they come into the park.
Because to a lot of people, if you don't know what it is, it just looks like
a big open recess basically. A very circular underground room.
But it was actually really advanced architecture,
there used to be a roof that you could completely walk over.
I always explain to people that this was church
and when you were a Pueblo person moving into your village,
you're going to build your kiva first and you're going to make sure
your family is comfortable in there.
That's kind of your most important spot is your religious area.
From that location, standing around the kivas, you can look back on the site,
that you just walked through, and you really get a sense of how grand it is,
and how beautiful it is.
And the fact that is has 21 kivas, it really means it's something special.
It's a place where people were gathering,
not just living, but gathering as a whole community.
I really believe it must have been central to life on the Mesa Verde.
Not only is the site really grand, but again the way you exit
is the original entrance and exit.
When you climb the ladders and look just to your side, you can see
the original hand and toe holds that they used to get into the site.
So 800 years later, not only are people gathering in these same places
people were gathering long ago, but they're using the exact same routes.
The architecture at Cliff Palace, the 4-story buildings,
the towers, remind us of the legacy that the Ancestral Pueblo people
left behind and how amazing they were when they were living here as well.