A couple of days after visiting the cliff dwellings we went up the 25-mile twisty road again....
The views were spectacular.
...to see the Far View site. During this time of year, most people are going to the cliff dwellings and, half the park is closed, so we had this site all to ourselves for a couple of hours.
The site is quite extensive so I'm posting a map to show how many places we were able to visit and take photos.
We took over 100 photos and that would make a loooooong posting so I've posted them here for your viewing....
https://picasaweb.google.com/stevenlstrick/MesaVerdeFarViewSite?authuser=0&feat=directlink
These people lived on top of the mesa and were farmers. They lived in this location for 500 years before moving south into Arizona and New Mexico.
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| Site B |
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| Site C. A reservoir to hold water. They built canals higher up the mesa and, as it rained, the rain ran downhill into here. This was 12-feet deep at one time. Sediment over the years has filled it up. |
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| Site D. This is where the water flowed in from the north, which is behind you. |
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| Site D. A close look at the entrance to the reservoir where the water entered. |
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| Site D. The people would walk down these steps into the reservoir to fill their baskets with water, then hand water their crops. |
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| Site C. A panorama of the reservoir |
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| Site E. Megalithic House. |
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| Site E. When this was discovered in the 1930s all that was showing were these tall large rocks to the left. Once excavated, a small group of homes and a kiva were uncovered. |
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| Site F. Far View House...named because of the 360-degree view. These homes were three stories high. |
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| I found this most fascinating. In my mind, the person who discovered this, J. Walter Fewkes, was looking around for more sites and came across the ruins. BUT, this was not the case. What he saw was this very large mound of rubble, comprised of dirt, tree limbs, etc, that had collected for hundreds of years. One he began excavation, the entire Far View House was revealed. |
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| Site F. Pine Shrine House |
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| Site H. Every now and then, we'd see some markings like this. People still don't know what they mean. |
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| Site H. Coyote Village. We were allowed to walk around and into this site. |
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| Site H. Coyote Village. |
All in all, a remarkable site(s). Kim had a ball. She could not take enough pictures. We fancied ourselves and famous archaeologists as we discussed why the walls were made the way they were, why were the kivas placed where they were, etc. Fun stuff.
Next stop: White Sands
Great place!
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