[Mesa Verde National Park & Great Sand Dunes National Park, Sep 7 ,2023]

I had really meant for Thursday to just be a travel day, but the cliff dwelling tour schedule at Mesa Verde had once again thrown a little wrench in my plans.

There was one more cliff dwelling on the tour schedule, Square House. But it only ran once a day Thursday through Sunday. The limit was 10 people, which made it a really challenging reservation to make on Recreation.gov. I logged in as soon as reservations opened, but I still could only get one ticket. Ash couldn’t go, which I think he secretly didn’t mind. He enjoyed a chill morning sleeping in and getting breakfast.

I, on the other hand, made it to the meting point around 8:15 am, 15 minutes prior to the start of the tour. Square House was easy to see from the overlook above. But how were we supposed to get down there?

Once the ranger arrived, she pointed out the stairs carved in the cliff and one of several ladders we had to get down. Can you see them in this video?

This was probably the trickiest dwelling to go down into. I was the most nervous in the section in the pics below. I had to go down these narrow steps, then turn around and and face the cliff before going down the ladder. The ropes really helped!

Square Tower House is named after the tallest standing architecture in the park, which is 27 feet tall. It wasn’t a tower originally; there were other buildings around it.

There is also an intact kiva roof, which is really rare. Most kivas look like the ones at Balcony House, without roofs.

I also learned about the Wetherills, for whom Whetherill Mesa is named. The Wetherill family were ranching in the region in the late 1800s. They spotted the cliff dwellings and even explored them, sometimes carving their initials into the walls. Word about the cliff dwellings eventually spread. People began to visit and the Whetherills started to lead tours. One of the people they lead was Baron Gustaf E. A. Nordenskiöld of Sweden, who unfortunately took many artifacts and even human remains to Sweden. There was no law prohibiting the removal of items at the time; the antiquities act was not passed till 1906.

Citizens didn’t wait for the federal government to protect the dwellings. Two local ladies, Virginia McClurg and Lucy Peabody, formed the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association to preserve the cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde area. Square tower house was originally named Peabody house after Lucy Peabody. The fact that it has since been renamed bugged me immensely. Have you heard of any of the places named after men being renamed? Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is still named after some guy who never even stepped foot in it.

Anyway… the early hours, the limited number of people on the tour (only 10) and the length (90 minutes) made it a very special, intimate experience. The ranger even played the flute at the end while we marveled at the dwelling in silence. It was my favorite cliff dwelling of the three and I am so glad I got to do it!

I got back to our lodge and we hopped in the car to continue to our next destination – Great Sand Dunes National Park. I had already packed all my stuff, but somehow I left my purse on the table in our room. Luckily, Ash noticed as we were getting in the car and disaster was averted!

Great Sand Dunes National Park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America. They cover an area of about 30 square miles. The dunes were formed when sediments from the surrounding mountains filled the lakes in the valley. After the lakes receded, the predominant Southwest winds blew exposed sand from the Sangre de Cristos mountains, eventually forming the dune field over tens of thousands of years.

We managed to make it to the visitor center just under an hour before it closed at 5 pm. The terrace in the back had great views of the dunes with the mountains in the background.

Some people rent sand sleds at a store just outside the park, but we didn’t have that much time to spend, since we still had a couple of hours to drive to our final destination, Colorado Springs. A short walk in the sand towards the most popular dune in the park, High Dune, had to suffice, which was fine with me. I was actually a little underwhelmed by this park. I found the sand dunes in Death Valley National Park and the gypsum ones at White Sands National Park much more appealing.