Mesa Verde Images - Study Mesa Verde National Park

Introduction.

Mesa Verde is a relatively small sized park located in the southwestern corner of Colorado. It provides an interesting and educational view into the history and lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people. There are well over 500 cliff dwellings located within the park, so the number of locations you visit will be driven by your schedule and the time you have to spend exploring. Beyond these incredible dwellings, there are a number of roadside overlook locations and hiking trails.

General logistics information.

There is only one entry point into the park, about 10 miles from Cortez, Colorado. For lodging, I am only aware of one location within the park called the Far View Lodge, although there are other options in Cortez. As far as food is concerned, there are a few different options within the park boundaries. Due to our traveling schedule, we only had 1 day to spend at Mesa Verde National Park, so this post will review the highlights of our visit. However, it should be noted, as stated earlier, there are many other locations to visit and activities to experience, if your schedule allows. If it turns out that you only have a limited time as we did, the guidance below will give you a good taste of the history and some very educational experiences.

Mesa Verde Images and Activities.

• As always, we believe it is a must to stop at the visitor center, in this case the Mesa Verde Visitor’s Center and Research Center. Check out the gift shop, get answers from one of the rangers, gather information on park activities, and purchase tickets if you are planning on taking one of the guided tours.

• Our plan was to take the guided tour of Cliff Palace and capture some wonderful Mesa Verde images, so we headed in that direction. Along the drive there are a number of pullouts that give you some great views, so be sure to make some stops along the way to Cliff Palace Overlook.
• The Cliff Palace tour is a one hour Park Ranger guided tour.  Be advised that while it is a relatively short tour in distance, there are some challenging elevation changes and you are required to climb a few ladders during the tour.
• The Park Rangers do a great job in providing history, background, and often humor. Our tour was no exception and the Park Ranger made this part of our visit more enjoyable than expected.
• While seeing the dwelling and capturing some iconic Mesa Verde images from the overlook is impressive, you really don’t get the true impact of the dwelling until you are down in the midst of the site.

• With the elevation of the Cliff Palace being around 7,000 feet, one of the items that struck me was that I sure would not have wanted to be one of the people responsible for going to retrieve water, to bring back up to the dwellings.
• I later learned, the Ancestral Pueblo people picked the spot for this dwelling, which was designed to capture water from the cliffs above.
• You will have no option but to walk away in awe of how these people built this dwelling over 1,500 years ago, and that it provided their home for over 700 years. Try to think of anything built today, with all our technological advances, that could possibly stand this test of time.

• After completing this tour and grabbing some lunch, we headed to Spruce Tree House, which offers you a self-guided tour.

• Once again, you start out with a panoramic view from above, which also provides a good vantage point for getting some Mesa Verde images, and then you have a good hike to get down to the actual dwelling. Remember, that means there will be a "back up the hill" return trip involved later.
• This site gives you the opportunity to walk through some of the dwelling’s rooms and even climb down into one of the kivas, by ladder.  This is another eye opening experience of life during those times.