Balcony
House
Balcony
House was one of the three cliff dwellings open to the public at this
time. It is also the most challenging, as the Park Service stresses.
To
enter Balcony House you descend a metal stairway, walk along a narrow
path on the side of the cliff and then climb a 32 foot ladder.
As
in the Cliff Palace, Balcony House is built in an alcove to provide
protection from the weather and from hostile people on the mesa above.
Some of the structures are two-story with logs used to make a balcony.
It appears that the Puebloans who built it did not provide for a
railing for the balcony.
The same logs forming the balcony also formed the ceiling of the first
floor and the floor of the second level.
The
path taken by the Park Service for the tour required that we exit
Balcony House by crawling through this small tunner. We were told that
the Puebloans actually used this tunnel for both their entrance and
exit.
Exiting
the tunnel at the other end. I have no idea who this guy is; he just
happened to be behind me and became my unwilling (?) model. The steel
gate is not authentic; it was added by the Park Service to prevent
access when the area is closed. The Puebloans did not have metal, but
were essentially living in the stone age.
The
route out of the Balcony House took us up the face of the cliff using a
ladder and steps cut into the rock. The ranger said that this was the
way used by the Puebloans to get to the mesa above, but they did not
have benefit of the metal railing and chains for safety.