Our campground was just across the highway from the visitor center, so we popped in to pick up some maps and guidance for walking the pups in the park. This is a really big park. It’s like an hour and a half from the visitor center to the main cave dwellings. I’ts really different from Montezuma Castle as we were above them instead of below. This place is even cooler. You can climb down into the structures. They warn you about how strenuous it will be and all the ladders you must climb, etc. Narrow two-foot-tall tunnels, etc. I held off purchasing any tickets today as I don’t like heights. Climbing 30 feet up a cliff face on a wooden ladder wasn’t all that appealing.
We drove to all the overlooks, the first one was the Cliff Palace and it was incredible.
i didn’t know there were about 25 different dwellings until a ranger stopped by to pet the pups and told me about them. I knew of three prior to arriving at the park: the Cliff Palace, the Balcony, and the Spruce House. But there are lots more to look at over on the Mesa Top Loop. The best part was the pups were allowed to go on most of the trails over there and were allowed into all the buildings on that side.
Toward the end of all the loops, we came to an overlook of the Cliff Palace from the opposite side of the canyon. From my first gander at it, I could see folks climbing the cliff face ladders and they didn’t look anything like what the ranger explained. So a bit later as we were leaving the Spruce House overlook, we stopped in the museum and purchased tickets for tomorrow at 4pm to climb down to the Cliff Palace. It looks incredible from above. Can’t wait to get down there!
