Today we spent more time exploring Mesa Verde… We started at the Chapin Mesa Museum, adjacent to the park headquarters. The museum had the usual exhibits about the flora and fauna of the park, plus some history and archaeological data. And a Gift Shop… Most interesting were miniature dioramas, or models, of the typical pueblo life during the various periods of occupancy, from 650 to 1300. These beautiful models were built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) during the 1930s…
What interested me more were the buildings at the museum and the park headquarters. The scale and massing was lovely, and the buildings were clustered as if they composed a small village… They were built with volcanic stone blocks, left un-plastered…
Did you notice the vigas? They are done very well. And they are real!
They are not simply stuck onto the exterior as decoration. They form the structure for the floor or roof above, and they extend through the wall as part of the structural connection. Another thing: they are Juniper. Juniper is naturally rot and disease-resistant. While the vigas in the park buildings are 85-90 years old, the vigas in the Pueblo are 500 years old, and very few of them show any evidence of rot…
Except for these…
Still, not bad for 85-90 years. Today’s tract houses in Santa Fe use Douglas Fir or Southern Pine for their fake vigas, and they show rot beginning in year one…!
After the museum we set out on a “hike” We are not generally hikers – we are walkers. This was a well-marked trail. It descends into Spruce Canyon, and goes down, and down, and down… About 586 vertical feet. The loop is almost 3 miles. But we were up to it. Being in the canyon is a little surreal, seeing the bushes, trees, rocks, and other feats of nature…
We did discover this gruesome evidence of wildlife…
Of course, after we walked down we had to walk up again. While the descent was gradual, the ascent was very short and steep… And we made it!
Walking back to the truck we heard thunder all the way. But there was no rain…
We again admired some of the park buildings… This is the original 1930s restroom building:
Nice proportions, authentic wood lintel, posts, and capitals, excellent stonework…
Next door they built a new restroom building containing facilities accessible to the disabled…
Nice proportions, excellent stonework… Nicely proportioned lintels, posts and capitals, but note: They are steel! Clearly, this building pays homage to the historical architecture, but it uses modern materials when duplicating the historic materials would compromise the integrity of a modern building. Well done, Architect, whoever you are…!
As we approached our next destination in the truck it started to rain… We stopped at Park Point, the highest point in the park, at 8,572 feet elevation. This is about 700 feet above the campground…
It was lightly raining, but we couldn’t help but notice this white gravel on the ground. Upon closer inspection, we discovered it was hail!
Views are amazing, in all directions…
We could see all the way to Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, plus, of course, Colorado…
This is “The Sleeping Ute”, a mountaintop in Utah that is supposed to resemble a sleeping Indian…
This is “Knife Edge mountain, which is our next stop…
Our next view overlook is called “Knife Edge”…
So we then headed back to The Villa… And we were in for a surprise: It had hailed at the campground, too!
The hail was small – no damage to The Villa. It lasted about an hour on the ground… Later that evening we had another “Fandango” to meet other caravaners. We were hosts, so we had 8 people inside the Villa…
And an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 
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