A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mesa Verde National Park is one of the most interesting parks I’ve visited to date. It is the first national park of its kind, established by Theodore Roosevelt, to ‘preserve the works of man’. Ancestral Puebloans lived in this area approximately 550-1300 AD. There are over 4,000 cliff dwellings and mesa top sites in this park. Incredible. The video shown at the Visitors Center was chock full of interesting information on the life and times of the cliff dwellers.
After driving the windy roads in the park, we made a short stop at the first Visitors Center before beginning out tour of Cliff Palace. It is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The palace contains 150 rooms, 23 kivas (ceremonial rooms) and was probably home to 100 people. According to the national park’s website, 75% of the dwellings within the park have between one to five rooms, so Cliff Palace was substantially larger. Most of the walls were painted during its heyday, but weather and time have taken their toll.
As we walked through Cliff Palace and stood in wonderment at how difficult it must have been to build in this area, our guide filled us in on daily life here. Obviously, the people had to get food somehow. An initial assessment yields no easy way to get up to the mesa top. And while not easy, it turns out that they made hand and foot indentations in the rock to climb up.
It was fun to stop at different overlooks in the park to see how many cliff dwellings you could spot.
After torrential rain the night before and that morning, the weather cleared for us to explore the park. Mesa Verde is located in southwest Colorado near Four Corners and is also worth putting on a road trip itinerary if you’re heading to southern Utah.
Today is the last day to enter the canvas print giveaway. Don’t forget to leave your comment on that post for a chance to win!
I love this place! Did you perchance also see wild turkeys while driving that windy road to Mesa Verde?
Wow! I had no idea those were there!
I’m so glad I’ve been able to “go” on this road trip with you…until I can do the real thing myself, you’ve been teaching me loads through photos and mentions of cool parks and spots.
Wow laura! I’m amaze. How genius our ancestor is! Was it build for climate protection?
Amazing place! It is hard to imagine how people really live there long ago.
That looks so beautiful. I’m sure they lived a hard life, but i guess it was also very peaceful. They must have been regular climbers to find their way around there.
I’ve been to over 300 National Park Units, and this is one of my very favorites. One of my earliest travel memories is my parents taking my brother, sister & I here when we were kids. I can say it’s one of the things that got me hooked on travel at a young age.
As much as I love national parks, I have been to nowhere near as many, but knowing that you have makes me happy that I selected to go to this one. Glad you loved it too!