Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde is best known for a large number of well preserved cliff dwellings, houses built in shallow caves along the canyon walls. For most of the 12th and 13th centuries, the Classic Period, the Ancient Puebloan Indians lived in these dwellings. The reason for their sudden departure about 1275 remains unexplained; theories range from crop failures due to droughts to an intrusion of foreign tribes from the North.       

The Mesa Verde Administrative District was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 29, 1987. It consists of the first buildings constructed by the National Park Service (1921), which are based on cultural traditions represented in the park area. The principal designer believed that structures could be used for interpretive purposes to explain the construction of prehistoric dwellings in the Park, and be compatible with their natural and cultural setting.       

This is the perfect trip to take with kids. It is totally hands on and a learning experience for everyone. Take the tour of the ruins and get involved in all the hands on events. I went as a kid and I thought it was really cool. I got to grind cornmeal the way the Native Americans did as well as walk in their footprints. You get to walk on staircases that who knows how many people have walked on for how many centuries. Its truly something to experience.

I went here a couple years ago… because I heard and read somewhere this is the birthplace of my written language…
supposedly the first written navajo was found here… I never
got to see it… but it was still a cool place to see

because she had just finished looking through a roll of double exposed pictures, my mom thought the first pictures I had taken of this place were double exposed too. Those cliff colored dwellings, nestled under the cliffs, the color of the rock, but definitely man made. I wish I could explore them more. Wonderful.

When I was young I can remember climbing around in these houses. It is a nice place to visit.

I was kicked out for having Tang in my nalgene. We may or may not have started a fire in the park because of it. I didn’t light a match or anything. But Smeed and I willed it…with our minds…and it happened.

IN the seventies with my Mom and Dad and sister as part of a West COast vacation extravaganza.
As a kid I found the different dwellings a bit spooky and creepy.
I’d like to go back now as an adult….

Cliff dwellings were stunning. What a life that must have been for the peoples who lived there!

The last time I visited Mesa Verde I was very young. It was probably 30 years ago, but it left an indelible impression on me. I had never been to a place in my life that held so much mystery and wonder to me. I had been to Chaco Canyon and other ancient native American archeological sites in my youth, but this place was and still is very special to me. All I could think about while I was there was what kind of life it must have been to be a young Native American buy my age as they did so long ago. I loved climbing the ladders and the cliffs and the trails and seeing the old living and spiritual sites. It was amazing. I have to go back, I want to take my family. I only hope that the place can still live up to my memories.