Mesa Verde National Park

After leaving Petrified Wood National Forest, we drove about 5 hours through Indian reservations to Cortez, CO. The terrain was primarily high desert, the view was of cattle munching on scarce, dry appearing grass, and stark rock outcroppings. This was the first time we have traveled in the dark since the beginning of our trip.

On reaching Cortez, we stopped to eat at a local brewery-style restaurant prior to checking in. It was owned by an older German gentleman who also owned a small ranch. The restaurant was eccentrically decorated with murals and scattered quotes. The thought for the day- "Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction."

Cortez is located about 5 miles outside the only entrance to Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde is one of the only parks preserved for cultural reasons rather than natural beauty. The mesa rises 2000 feet above the valley, cut by several canyons. The canyons house thousands of cliff dwellings tucked under overhanging rock. Scientists have dated these well-preserved dwellings from A.D. 550 to 1300.

In order to tour the major sites, visitors must sign up for a ranger tour. No one is allowed into the sites alone, primarily for preservation reasons. We decided to tour the site known as the Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the United States. After climbing down a series of stone steps, we arrived at a large group of stone structures that were remarkably intact. Although some stabilization repairs have been done by the park service, most are as they were re-discovered 130 years ago. We were not allowed to touch most of the ruins, but took lots of photographs. Later, we walked down to a ruin known as Spruce House, where visitors are allowed to wander through the buildings and climb a ladder down into a Kiva. A Kiva is a circular ceremonial building that may also have served as a winter dwelling, as it was mostly underground. The whole concept was truly amazing to us, that this civilization of thousands of "ancestral Puebloans" could have left such durable evidence of their existence. A park definitely worth visiting!

As mentioned previously, this visit was our last to the national parks for this trip. We were off to Grand Junction to visit and relax before our trip back to New England.