Tags
ancestral Puebloan, balcony house, kiva, mesa verde national park, new fire house, photography, postaday, spruce tree house, square tower
Mesa Verde National Park, near Cortez, CO, is different from all the other national parks I have visited up to now. It does not have dramatic scenery or breathtaking vistas. However, for the whole day today it has drawn me into the ancestral Puebloan architecture and their history of survival in one of the harshest environment of the American Southwest. They lived in Mesa Verde some 700 years from 550 to about 1300 before moving on further south. They left ruins of houses and sometimes of entire villages that archaeologists are still studying today.
I took over 200 photos, not all perfect mind you, and I hope the following will give you a taste of Mesa Verde if you haven’t been there yet.
We arrived at the Visitor and Research Center early to buy tickets for a ranger guided tour of the Balcony House.
Square Tower House, the tallest at Mesa Verde.
Miles driven to date: 7,370 miles.