Located in the area known as the Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet, Mesa Verde is the only national park in the U.S. devoted exclusively to archaeology. One glance at the intricately constructed multistorey homes in the rocky cliffs shows why. With close to 4,000 known archaeological sites, it’s the largest such preserve in the U.S.
Members of the Ancestral Puebloan culture (formerly known by the Navajo name Anasazi) that flourished here between A.D. 600 and 1300 created astounding masonry buildings in alcoves in the canyon walls. Storage rooms and kivas, circular underground chambers, accompanied the living quarters. Many of the alcoves face south, allowing them to capture precious sunlight in winter and avoid the summer glare. Residents grew corn, beans and squash, using dry-land farming techniques and left-behind pottery painted with delicate geometric designs.
Twenty-four Native American tribes in the Southwest are believed to have an ancestral affiliation with the sites at Mesa Ver
Located in the area known as the Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet, Mesa Verde is the only national park in the U.S. devoted exclusively to archaeology. One glance at the intricately constructed multistorey homes in the rocky cliffs shows why. With close to 4,000 known archaeological sites, it’s the largest such preserve in the U.S.
Members of the Ancestral Puebloan culture (formerly known by the Navajo name Anasazi) that flourished here between A.D. 600 and 1300 created astounding masonry buildings in alcoves in the canyon walls. Storage rooms and kivas, circular underground chambers, accompanied the living quarters. Many of the alcoves face south, allowing them to capture precious sunlight in winter and avoid the summer glare. Residents grew corn, beans and squash, using dry-land farming techniques and left-behind pottery painted with delicate geometric designs.
Twenty-four Native American tribes in the Southwest are believed to have an ancestral affiliation with the sites at Mesa Verde. Though well known to the neighbouring Ute Mountain tribe, the empty dwellings went mostly unnoticed until local ranchers stumbled on them in 1888. The area was declared a park in 1906, and since then a handful of the 600 or so cliff dwellings in its 52,000 acres have been stabilised and opened to the public.
Cliff Palace, the jewel of the park, had over 150 rooms occupied by about 100 people at its peak. You’ll have to get a ticket for a ranger-led tour of this and Balcony House, which requires climbing ladders and crawling through a 12-foot-long tunnel, the most challenging in the park. Both are on Chapin Mesa, as is Spruce Tree House, with 130 rooms and eight kivas. Wetherill Mesa, named after the Mancos ranching family that first discovered and popularised the ruins, has less traffic; here you’ll find Long House, the park’s second-largest, open only to ranger-led tours.
The six-mile Mesa Top Loop Road passes a number of interesting spots with easy access, including pithouses (covered dwellings partially dug into the ground) and scenic overlooks. The only place to stay in the park is the modest Far View Lodge, where the restaurant offers pretty good Southwestern fare and rooms have private porches and great views. They say that on a clear day you can see all four states that make up the Four Corners.
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