Luminarias @ Mesa Verde

Each Year, one night in December, the Mesa Verde Park Service light the paths around the Spruce Tree House Museum and Ruin with luminarias ( little candles pushed down in sand in paper bags) and invites the public to come up ( about a seventeen mile drive up to the Mesa and this year it was snowy) and walk down to the cliff dwellings and listen to local choirs and singing groups.

the path was cold and icy this year...

winding down on switch backs to get to the bottom of the canyon, but then you see the ruin, peeking through the trees...

The Rangers use lanterns hidden in the rooms to illuminate the ruins, it is very pretty but  you can't help but feel the "ghosts" that lived there before and wonder if they want to be disturbed by us "uninvited guests"

 or if they like the Christmas Carols, and did  they listen to their children sing, in the long winter nights?

 Thank you Mesa Verde Park Rangers for lighting our way and for the warm and yummy chili and cookies in the Snack Bar, when we had made it back up to the rim of the canyon!

Merry Christmas!!