Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde National Park preserves the pit dwellings, cliff houses, petroglyphs, and other structures of the Ancestral Pueblo people who inhabited the area from about 600 CE to 1300 CE. From the northern entrance to the park in southwestern Colorado, one ascends towards the highest point of the park and then gradually descends traveling southward into one of several valleys where the Ancestral Pueblo lived.

Spruce House. This area has been closed due to the hazards of rock falls. Here the Ancestral Pueblo built a village in a well-sheltered alcove in the sandstone cliffs. 

Spruce canyon with Yucca baccata in the foreground.

The park was different from my expectations prior to the visit, mainly in terms of vegetation and topography. I had pictured cliff dwellings set in steep mountains covered with green forests and lingering snow at this time of year. Rather, the mesa environment was fairly dry with more sparse vegetation and just a bit of snow in places. The snow-covered peaks of Colorado and eastern Utah could be seen in the distance, however.

A one mile hike from Spruce Tree House takes one to a small collection of petroglyphs carved into the vertical face of light-colored sandstone rock. The trail also affords pretty remarkable views of the canyons that cut the mesa at the south end of the park.

The cliff houses were the most interesting feature of the park in my view. These structures were made of sandstone blocks with mortar, and set in the vertical faces or alcoves of sandstone cliffs. One tower was 4-storied. Some of the dwelling locations seemed pretty inaccessible from either the top of the mesa or the valleys below. These areas possibly afforded protection from the elements or from hostile neighbors. The dwellings were apparently abandoned by the population of the area abruptly about 700 years ago but the cause isn’t well understood. 

Square Tower House.

Reference

Patraw PM. 1977. Flowers of the Southwest mesas. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Globe, AZ.

Sunset over eastern Utah.

Sunset from "Geologic Outlook".