![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/GliffPalace00005.jpg\")
<\/a>There were large rocks all around us and a narrow passage to the right with some jagged steps cut into them, very narrow steps, maybe a foot wide and all different heights, as if a blind man had carved them out of the rock.<\/p>\nThose steps probably went down about 120 feet.\u00a0 Very cool and narrow.\u00a0 Not many handholds, so the rocks filled in for that part.\u00a0 The only adverse issue was the jarring shock as you stepped down and found it was closer to 18″ on some rather than 8 to 10″ steps.\u00a0\u00a0 At the bottom was a narrow path that led off to the left toward the Palace.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a few hundred feet to the first 10′ ladder to climb.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the previous tour group moved on, we descended more very uneven steps, but this time they were a lot wider.\u00a0\u00a0 As we moved closer to the ruins, we entered into the full sun and started to bake a bit.\u00a0\u00a0 After about 20 minutes baking in the sun standing around the actual ruins, the talks were over. \u00a0 We got to look into one of the towers at some paintings on the walls, then it was time to climb out of there.\u00a0\u00a0 We determined it is truly harder to climb up the cliff than to go down..<\/p>\n Once at the top, I couldn’t believe we did it.\u00a0\u00a0 And Kathy, who was so cocky that morning about running laps around me, was quite a bit more subdued.\u00a0\u00a0 See the last picture, she could barely make it two steps from the last ladder… notice where i was taking the picture from. \u00a0 [I think it was more from heat exhaustion, although the ladders climbing out were scarier than I thought they would be!]<\/p>\n Luckily the long walk to the car was on relatively flat ground. \u00a0And thankfully I insisted we pack some cold bottles of Snapple and fruit for after the trek.<\/p>\n Off to Durango tomorrow.<\/p>\n It’s Wednesday morning and I am ready to climb down to the Cliff Palace and check the place out up close and personal.\u00a0\u00a0 Our tour was at 4 pm, so we had some time to kill,\u00a0 drove in to Cortez to pick up a few things at WallyMart and find the post office to pay … <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>After climbing that, we wound further down that path to a large nitch in the rocks where we all found spots to sit in the shade while Ranger Carol told us about the history of the people that lived here and wait for the previous tour to leave the Palace ahead.\u00a0 The view of the ruins from there was terrific!\u00a0\u00a0 We were there at the perfect time for the sun to illuminate almost the whole Palace.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s really hard to imagine the people who lived here left over 800 years ago and moved south toward the Rio Grande.<\/p>\n<\/a>Maybe 4 pm wasn’t such a great idea…\u00a0 The ranger,\u00a0 an archeologist by training, clued us in to how they figured out when the folks built the structures and when they left.\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently they only lived there about 100 years.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a grand structure. \u00a0 The pictures don’t do it justice, you should just go there and see it for yourself. <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>There were some leisurely steps at first, then it got a lot narrower and steeper.\u00a0 You have to see the crevice we climbed out of to believe it, maybe 18″ wide at spots, and three more ladders around 10′ each.\u00a0 I had originally thought I wouldn’t like the ladders as they seemed to say they were on a sheer cliff with a narrow ledge, and I do not like heights.\u00a0 But these ladders were in such narrow places with almost no way to see how high you were, I never even thought of how high we were. \u00a0But if anyone was claustrophobic, there would have been an issue.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"