Mesa Verde, Colorado

Leaving New Mexico
Arriving Colorado
Mesa Verde Ahead
GPS showing elevation of 8298 feet

Visitors Center overlooking the valley below

Diorama of Cliff Life for Ancient Puebloans

Early tools all made from animal bones

This vest is fully beaded in the front - amazing!

Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling

The view on the way down Mesa Verde

Our drive NW out of Santa Fe led us through some amazing geologic formations and pretty countryside. Subtly the landscape changed from arid plains with stone mountains to pine forests among mountainous slopes. Within a few hours we found ourselves in the SW corner of Colorado. Very picturesque, even in the middle of summer. In winter of course there would be snow on all of the mountains and ski season would be in full swing. Our course was set for a visit to the ancient Puebloan ruins at Mesa Verde NP. A 'Mesa' is defined as 'relatively flat elevated area with steep sides'. The third photo from the top attests to that. Can you believe the early American Indians were living here in this place from 550 AD and for the next 750 years? Mind boggling. In Mesa Verde NP, there are over 600 cliff dwellings, although we only visited one, the Spruce Tree House.

Winter snows do untold damage to roads, and the winding 20 miles of road (elevation over 8,000' above sea level) along the edge of the Mesa was no exception. There were road workers at several spots and often there was only one lane open to traffic. Fortunately a lovely breeze came in the windows and as we had called into a little town just before the park and picked up some cafe lattes and pastries, we turned off the engine and enjoyed our enforced coffee break, admiring the surrounding scenery.

The main visitors' center at Mesa Verde takes bookings for ranger guided hikes and tours of cliff dwellings, complete with interpretations of the sites. There are limited artifacts on show at the museum and no video to watch, so we continued onto the next main stop which was the Museum. It continuously ran a 25 minute video which gave the most wonderful description of the history and life of these early people. A comprehensive museum showed tools, clothing, craftwork and early foods found during archeology digs. Glass framed dioramas depicted life in the cliff dwellings and provided a most impressive display of this ancient culture. We thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent here. From the museum we took the 1/4 mile paved steep path down to the Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling where visitors can see the dwelling first hand and imagine how is was to live there. From information we read in the Visitor Guide, the Spruce Tree House was constructed between 1211 - 1278 AD, contained 130 rooms and was home to around 80 people. The clever location of most of the cliff houses served to protect them from the snow and cold winds in winter, and the rock overhangs provided shade in the summer. They effectively used natural rock crevices and ledges to enhance their dwellings. Well worth a visit.