Mesa Verde National Park is located in Colorado. This article is some facts on it and the
adventure that we had on a trail with a 30 foot ladder, including smaller ones,
and with a 12 foot tunnel!
over 600 cliff dwellings. The cliff dwellings were made by the
Anasazi people who inhabited the mesa from about 600 to 1300. Drought was
the reason that they moved. Water was very important to them because they
were farmers.
so much! On the drive to the top of this really big mesa, you go on
switch backs that are very, very close to the edge of the cliff.
could get a great view of
everything below the mesa. There was once a
dirt road there when the park was first made that went along the edge of the
mesa’s cliff. There were probably a lot of safety problems because-
road to drive on. Some of the first road could be viewed from one of the first
view points.
Verde. There are Junior Ranger books available. When we were in the visitor center, Mom saw that you could sign up for cliff hikes where we could
get to see old Indian dwellings. Quite awhile back, Indians had lived
there. The Indian dwellings are really neat there because a lot of them
were built on the cliff. There are a lot that were not, too.
Balcony House guided tour. You had to go on a guided tour to do it,
because of the cliffs. We had to hurry to get there on time. Since
the trail was not good for younger kids, Josephine and Tytus stayed
behind. Mom had
to stay to watch them. On our drive to the start of the
trail for Balcony House, we talked about the trail. There where 30ft
ladders, steep cliffs, a tunnel to crawl though, and a cliff that you climb up
holding on to a chain!
the trail. I just laughed along!
SISTER ADVICE: when your brother is messing with you, act
like it does not upset you and then they will stop. Trust me! My
brother is great and I really, really love him. He just likes to mess
with me and I mess with him right back!
signed up for the hike. Those of us who where going on the hike quickly
ate something before we hit the trail. After maybe 15 minutes of waiting,
the ranger that was leading the hike arrived. He gave us instructions for
on the trail. Then, finally, we headed out. We said bye to Mom,
Tytus, and Josephine. After about 2 minutes on the trail we reached a set
of stairs that where on the cliff. We all carefully climbed down
them. It would hurt pretty bad to fall off them. Then we came to
the first ladder, which was maybe 15 feet tall.
for us to climb up beside each other. I
knew that I could do it, but I
was worried about my little brother Gabriel. He was old enough for the
hike and Dad was by him but I was still worried.
So, we all made it up
the ladder without any injures. After that, we kept walking and walking on a
pretty flat part of the trail. Then we reached a small ladder maybe
5ft. That was the final one to the Balcony House! When we got there
we got to look around with the ranger leading, of course. The Balcony
House looked like a big house on a cliff! There were quite a few windows
on it, too. The view was very pretty. We looked around for maybe 15
minutes. We then hit the trail again.
that big, 12 feet long. Around the middle there is a rock like thing that
you have to crawl around. Gabriel and I had lots of fun climbing through
that!
ranger instructed us in how to climb, we headed up in the same order of last
time. The ladder was huge and made out of wood. It was really cool
to climb.
When we finished that, we came to a cliff/steep slope to
climb by holding on to a chain. That was something I had never gotten to
try before and it is definitely something that I will never forget!
had a great time and told everyone else in the family how great it was!
Article by my sister Hanna on our website- https://thelemonadedigest.com/issue/the-lemonade-digest/article/mesa-verde-national-park
Author: Naomi Smith, age 12
1/16/14
The Lemonade Digest 