Mesa Verde

We'd been talking about visiting Mesa Verde National Park since we arrived in Colorado, but always found reasons for not going. It takes a minimum of eight hours to drive there, depending on your route. During the summer, it's pretty hot that far south. No matter which route you take, you have to go over some mountain passes, which makes for a dicey trip during the winter months.

But two weeks ago, the weather forecasts were promising, we had roofers hammering away above us, and life was wearing us down. We tossed our suitcases in the trunk and drove. And drove. And drove. In the three-day round trip, we travelled over 1,000 miles through ever-changing, jaw-dropping scenery without even leaving Colorado.

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. (National Park Service)

The decision to visit Mesa Verde during the first week in November was serendipitous. Judging from the size of the parking lot at the museum/visitor center, the place is mobbed during the summer. We shared a tour of the Cliff Palace—one of the biggest settlements at the site—with about 50 delightful fifth grade girls from a Denver charter school.

Cliff Palace

The rest of the day, we saw few other visitors. We were the only hikers on the Petroglyph Trail that afternoon. The silent canyon heightened the drama of coming face-to-face with our first-ever petroglyphs, including the small handprints of the artist(s).


More pictures from Mesa Verde:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Katharine.Gillette/MesaVerde