Wayfarin' Journey: The Knife's Trail and Mesa Verde

On the Knife’s Edge Trail ~Mystery of Mesa Verde

Spruce Tree House

Again we walk among the Ancients as we hiked at sunset the Knife’s Edge Trail, a narrow path along the rim of Mesa Verde. The modern decedents of the Ancient Peoples who lived in Mesa Verde 550 AD to 1300 AD believe that the name Anasazi was not a kind name to their ancestors so now they are called Ancestral Pueblo Peoples. The sunset was beautiful but no hummingbirds this time. Eighteen years ago there were thousands; perhaps they have migrated south already or there weren’t enough red penstemon flowers blooming. But the mule deer does and their fawns still came to feed on the rabbitgrass beside our RV.

Yesterday was filled with long long ago history. Pat climbed into the Cliff Palace Pueblo ( a strenuous climb down narrow steps and up ladders so my knee wouldn’t let me go) and we both visited the Spruce Tree House Dwelling (a moderate hike up and down), where families of at least a hundred people lived but then the mystery: the People abandoned the cliffs and left the area and move to the southern deserts around 1300 AD. Why did they leave? A 24 year drought made large game hunts and farming difficult but they had weathered droughts before and springs inside the cliff dwellings still gave them water. Why go to the desert? Why not just move to the mountains where game would be more plentiful? Pat will tell you the stories and an hypothesis.

Pithouse

Archaeologists have found over 4500 remains of dwellings (only 600 were cliff dwellings) in Mesa Verde and there are probably more to be uncovered. As early as 550 AD (Pre-Basketmakers) they lived on top of the Mesa in pithouses and you can see the advancement from those small inground houses to small villages, then to the cliff dwellings and huge temples called the Temples of Sun and Fire.

The agriculture of these people was of the most interest to me. They grew the three sisters, corn, beans and squash and gathered berries and other wild plants for food and medicine. From 1915 to 1972 the National Park preservers grew corn near the Cliff Palace just as the Ancestral Pubelos had…in dry conditions.

It rained for a couple hours, oh beautiful rain.