Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings

 Jeffrey manages to look incredibly alien-like, or alien-hunter-like.  But it was appropriate attire for the trip since it was 106 degrees.

 As part of the Bailey Family Reunion we visited the Manitou Springs Cliff dwellings near Colorado Springs.  The cliff dwellings really were cool and quite impressive in person. The weird thing is that:

The Anasazi did not live in the Manitou Springs area, but lived and built their cliff dwellings in the Four Corners area, several hundred miles southwest of Manitou Springs. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were relocated to their present location in the early 1900s, as a museum, preserve, and tourist attraction. The stones were taken from a collapsed Anasazi site near Cortez in southwest Colorado, shipped by railroad to Manitou Springs, and assembled in their present form as Anasazi-style buildings closely resembling those found in the Four Corners. The project was done with the approval and participation of well-known anthropologist Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, and Virginia McClurg, founder of the Colorado Cliff Dwelling Association

Still looking alien-like.   I bet Garrett will approve.

 The rooms were so tiny, it was amazing that whole families lived in each room.  These cliff dwellings would have been like an entire village.

 And Charlotte on the rocks.

It was very hot, I spent most of the time nursing a baby, and we lost a child (Arabelle) who was returned to us in tears by a kindly museum patron, but all in all a wonderful visit.  I'm so glad we had the rest of the Baileys (not pictured, they were all there) to go with us because it is the sort of thing that we would want to do but never be motivated to do alone.