Mesa Verde - Cliff Dwellings

(As always, click on any photo to enlarge!)

We reached Mesa Verde National Park in the "four corners" area of southwest Colorado late in the afternoon. This site has been on Linda's "must see" list for many years. The dwellings lie below the top of a mesa that rises south of the highway. The drive up to the top is long but offers several pretty views:


After a quick stop at the visitor center, we walked down to the most visited of the sites, Spruce Tree House. This is a self-guided tour:


Then we drove to one of the more remote dwellings, Cliff Palace. With 150 identified rooms, this is the largest and best preserved of the ruins. Since it was past the time of the last ranger-led tour of this dwelling, there were no people in the pictures. The dwellings look like models when photographed from above.



We later photographed the same dwelling from across the canyon.


The road through the park winds across some burned areas with a very surreal appearance in the evening light.