Next we go on to Durango, Colorado, the closest town of any size to the Mesa Verde group of Anasazi Cliff Dwellings. We choose to tour the Spruce Tree House which has a large rock overhang so it is very well preserved compared to many of the ruins that have been found in this part of the world. It has over one hundred rooms and probably housed about one hundred to one hundred twenty five people. We see the spring at the head of the canyon that was the little village's water source. Nearby are several smaller rooms built into high cracks in the walls that precede the town proper. Archeologists say these were probably secure places where corn, beans, squash and such were stored for the winters. Some areas had sandstone slabs near the doorways, too heavy for squirrels or raccoons to move. As we walk in front of the main village, we can peer into several of the rooms, down what was the central walkway of the little town going back about ninety feet to the rear wall of the cave, and are allowed access into a restored kiva (the original roofs had a layer of poles across them, with a second layer of branches and then mud to make them solid enough to walk on - those roofs had all fallen in over time). These pueblos are quite beautiful, built multistoried of very light colored sandstone blocks, that seem to be inviting us in on this warm, sunshiny fall day. 
The green coat is the Park Ranger and we're looking down the length of the ruins (a couple of ranchers first found this when they were out rounding up stray cattle, and they climbed down a big spruce tree from the mesa top). Then I'm at the opening they call the main street, Gary is going into (or coming out of?), a kiva, and the last shot is from the parking lot above