Has anyone seen these? I know you have also like in Southwest Colorado homes on cliffs etc. It is on my bucket list to visit some of these. I am just at awe at these and you can just imagine their life.

A way of life

Never seen anything like that before. Cool!

I did a backpacking trip 10 years ago in what is now Bear's Ears National Monument to see backcountry Anasazi ruins. It was amazing to see those stone buildings 200 feet off the canyon floor, tucked into pockets in vertical cliff faces. There were still ladders relatively intact due to the dry desert air clinging to stone. Since they were backcountry sites, you could walk right up to the buildings at ground level and peek inside. This group was more primitive than the Chaco culture closer to 4 corners. I think that their resources were significantly less.

Their lives were pretty awful. The reason that they made their homes so far up on the cliffs was so that they could pull up their ladders when they got raided by neighboring groups for their meager corn stocks. If they didn't fall to their death at some point, they would die at about age 35 when their teeth were so ground down from rock dust in their corn flour that they starved. The whole experience was a pretty sobering reminder of how good we have it now- to stand in the sites of such hardship and struggle to survive.

That said, the country was absolutely beautiful in March and the ability to create in spite of such struggle is inspiring. If you are interested, check out Grand Gulch near Mexican Hat, UT.

Hard to feel too bad for them; I mean their house was paid off the minute they packed the last bit of mud chinking...not nearly the struggle as having to deal with a 30 year mortgage! I wonder if their friends or acquaintances ever sarcastically accused them of living under a rock..

quote ayudell: "I did a backpacking trip 10 years ago in what is now Bear's Ears National Monument to see backcountry Anasazi ruins. It was amazing to see those stone buildings 200 feet off the canyon floor, tucked into pockets in vertical cliff faces. There were still ladders relatively intact due to the dry desert air clinging to stone. Since they were backcountry sites, you could walk right up to the buildings at ground level and peek inside. This group was more primitive than the Chaco culture closer to 4 corners. I think that their resources were significantly less.


Their lives were pretty awful. The reason that they made their homes so far up on the cliffs was so that they could pull up their ladders when they got raided by neighboring groups for their meager corn stocks. If they didn't fall to their death at some point, they would die at about age 35 when their teeth were so ground down from rock dust in their corn flour that they starved. The whole experience was a pretty sobering reminder of how good we have it now- to stand in the sites of such hardship and struggle to survive.


That said, the country was absolutely beautiful in March and the ability to create in spite of such struggle is inspiring. If you are interested, check out Grand Gulch near Mexican Hat, UT."

Walking up to them in the backcountry would be awesome. I would think a certain feeling,like spiritual or something you would feel.

I was born on the Navajo Reservation. As a child I spent a lot of time on the Mesa. Even though I have been gone a long time I still miss the dances, sand painting and the Kachina dolls.

quote Pinetree:
Walking up to them in the backcountry would be awesome. I would think a certain feeling,like spiritual or something you would feel."

That's totally it.

quote Mickeal: "I was born on the Navajo Reservation. As a child I spent a lot of time on the Mesa. Even though I have been gone a long time I still miss the dances, sand painting and the Kachina dolls."

Thumbs Up! Time for you to attend a pow-wow.

Probably thirty years ago, my sister (trained in archaeology in the southwest) hiked me out to see old house ruins on a hill right near Los Alamos, New Mexico. I remember being impressed by how low the ceilings were... maybe those folks were somewhat shorter? It was a magical place, and a weird contrast: being right next to the place that was pivotal in making the Bomb.