Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park
Yesterday the U.S. National Park Service celebrated its centennial. My family and I love visiting national parks, and during our recent road trip through New Mexico and up to Durango, Colorado, we couldn’t pass up the chance to see a new one (to us): Mesa Verde National Park.
Located in southwestern Colorado, Mesa Verde was established in 1906 not to protect unique natural scenery, as in other parks, but to “preserve the works of man,” specifically cliff dwellings and other archaeological relics constructed by the Ancestral Pueblo people (formerly known as Anasazi) between AD 600 and 1300 — i.e., the Middle Ages in European history.
The sandstone-and-adobe multistory homes built under overhanging cliffs, for which Mesa Verde is famous, date to the latter years of this period — before that, simple pit houses dug into mesa tops were common — and were occupied for less than 100 years. By 1300, centuries before the first Spanish explorers arrived, the cliff dwellers had abandoned their homes and moved away. Theories on the abandonment include decades of drought, depletion of natural resources, and warfare.
Mesa Verde contains 600 cliff dwellings and more than 4,500 archaeological sites, and you can easily spend a day driving the twisting, hilly roads from site to site, stopping at overlooks, seeing the park’s dated yet informative museum, and, if you buy a ticket in advance, exploring one or two of the cliff dwellings on a ranger-led tour.
One of the best preserved cliff dwellings is Spruce Tree House (pictured here and above). It’s normally open for self-guided touring (which astonishes me, actually), but due to a recent rock fall and the danger of more, it’s indefinitely closed to visitors. Still, you can enjoy excellent views from an overlook near the museum.
During our drive through the park, we saw a coyote trotting along the road, unfazed when I slowed down to get a photo.
It was pretty hot that day, and I was surprised to see him around noontime. Coyotes are usually so sly.
We’d planned to tour one of the cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace (pictured here). But we goofed by not getting tickets the day before, and when we arrived early one morning, ready to hike, tours were already sold out until the afternoon. Not wanting to climb the cliff stairs in the soaring heat of mid-afternoon, we bought tickets for the following morning and spent the day driving through the park, which we enjoyed.
But the next morning, after two days of getting up before dawn, we were feeling lazy about dragging ourselves out of bed to make the one-hour drive from our rental house in Hesperus to the park and then another one-hour drive to Cliff Palace (the park is big). We didn’t return, to my semi-regret. The tickets were only $4 each, so it wasn’t a big expense, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be back.
And just look at it — isn’t it amazing to think of how old these ruins are, how they’re tucked precariously under cliffs in such an unforgiving landscape, and muse on what life must have been like for these early Americans?
If you go to Mesa Verde and want to do one of the ranger tours, be sure to buy tickets early; tickets must be purchased in person, up to two days in advance, at the Mesa Verde Visitor Center, the Colorado Welcome Center in Cortez, or a couple of other official places.
But even if you’re not up for a cliff climb at 7,000 feet, if you like history, archaeology, Native American cultures, or simply high-desert vistas, Mesa Verde is a fascinating park to visit.
Up next: Driving the scenic San Juan Skyway and taking a steam train through the mountains. For a look back at Georgia O’Keefe’s beloved landscape around Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu, click here.
I welcome your comments; please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading this in a subscription email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post.
_______________________
Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events
South Texans, come see me at the 2nd annual Planta Nativa festival in McAllen, Texas, on Saturday, October 22. I’ll be delivering the keynote talk, “Local Heroes: Designing with Native Plants for Water-Saving Gardens,” that evening. Tickets go on sale soon at Quinta Mazatlan. I hope to see you there!
Do you review? Have you read my new book, The Water-Saving Garden? If you found it helpful or inspirational, please consider leaving a review — even just a sentence or two — on Amazon, Goodreads, or other sites. Online reviews are crucial in getting a book noticed. I really appreciate your help!
All material © 2006-2016 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Pam, it is so interesting to read these posts. I visited Mesa Verde when I was about 12 years old. For whatever reasons, my parents decided we wouldn’t actually go into the dwellings but the memory of seeing them from a distance remains. I’ve always wanted to return, and this year my sister and her family did. They either went on a ranger tour or bought one of the tickets but definitely saw more than I did, so many years ago. Lucky her — and lucky you. A great experience, and one I enjoyed sharing on line.
I hope my daughter will remember this trip as you did, Pat. She and her dad did go into one cliff dwelling that was open to the public with no ticket required. I was feeling the effects of the elevation and afternoon heat and didn’t go with them. But I still very much enjoyed the sights at the park. —Pam
I was there in 1971 with a college friend and we did go into the accessible dwellings. I Don’t remember having to buy a ticket etc. seems like it was a less popular site back then. Definitely memorable.
The national parks are more popular than ever these days, Linda. I’m not surprised to hear things have changed. What does surprise me is that they let people into these fragile dwellings at all. —Pam
I have read about these places over the years but have never been to them. Reading this makes me want to go there.
It’s fascinating, Lisa. Time to make plans for a road trip! —Pam
We did the self-guided tour 20 or so years ago. I wondered if they were even letting people into the dwellings anymore. There is so much maliciousness going on, and then there are probably those ‘special’ people who, regardless of signs, pick up the old adobe bricks and take them. That area and those dwellings are amazing. Incredible place.
Like you, Lara, I’m surprised they let people into the sites, especially unaccompanied by rangers at a couple of the locations. But it does sound as if most of the damage that has occurred here happened in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when treasure hunters and collectors raided pottery relics, burned the wooden-beam roofs for fuel, and tore into the walls for easy access. Thank goodness the place was eventually preserved as a national park and that type of wanton destruction was halted. —Pam
I am sorry you didn’t get to go down into the ruins but aren’t those views from the top amazing. Imagine those cowboys seeing them for the first time. It was a surprise to us too, two years ago, that you had to get a ticket but we were lucky to be camping in the park. Our first time was in the early 80s with our children. We still did the same climbing up those scary ladders into balcony house and then squeezing through that little slot. I think the squeeze was a little more difficult this time. Spotting all the ruins is another fun thing to do and as you say there are so many. You certainly have had a wonderful summer of travel. In the 80s we went to Betatakin, That was a Navajo led hike into ruins which had never been excavated. The little corn cobs were still lying on the ground where they were left. That was where I learnt they used mullein leaves for baby diapers! We always said we would return and hike to Keet Seel but I think the 17 mile round trip is now out of the question. Happy Birthday National Park Service. You have given us untold hours of enjoyment and beauty.
How interesting that Navajo-led tour must have been, Jenny, especially to see the place so unspoiled! Thanks for sharing your memories of Mesa Verde too. Yes, here’s to the NPS. It’s been the source of many wonderful travels for us. —Pam
Wow looks incredible! I’m fascinated by what life was like in the past (the older the better) and to be able to actually see their homes and how people lived…amazing. That’s now on the bucket list.
It’s a fascinating place, Margaret. —Pam
I think Andrew would have cried if we hadn’t been able to go down and tour the dwellings at Spruce Tree House. If you’re curious here’s my post with a closer look: http://www.thedangergarden.com/2012/03/mesa-verde-national-park-colorado.html
Reading about the cracks in the rocks above Spruce Tree, it doesn’t sound like it will be reopened any time soon. Good thing you saw it when you did. Luckily there are other cliff dwellings still open to tour. —Pam
Several years ago, we visited and got a guided tour of the ruins, including an ancient kitchen. One vividly remembered detail is that by middle age, they had lost their teeth. They ground the corn for their tortillas on sandstone grinding stones, and years of eating tortillas infused with the sand ground their teeth down to stumps.
And their middle age was probably 25! —Pam
Probably!