Manitou Cliff Dwellings

On our return trip from Oklahoma we stopped at the Manitou Indian Cliff Dwellings in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This was a really cool history lesson about the Anasazi people and all the magnificent cliff dwellings they built. It was also really beautiful, both the dwellings and the scenery.

These cliff dwellings are actually reconstructions of the original, though they did use the original stone and built them in the same dimensions and layouts as the original which were located in Mesa Verde. This was done because of the looting and destruction going on. The nice thing about this being a reconstruction is that the stones were put back together with concrete mortar instead of the mud/clay mortar used by the Anasazi. Now people can walk and climb through the dwellings and not worry about the stones coming crashing down on top of anyone. That is nice.


Nikolas and Lukas had fun exploring this place and we didn't hear Nik say he was bored even once! Except for maybe in the gift shop.....

Hello Alex!

The boys loved being able to climb through all the openings and up the ladders.
This is a great place to teach the more hands-on learners some history.

This was a great reminder to me that there are so many places within a couple days of driving that will be fun and wonderful history lessons for my children. Not to mention for me!