Mesa Verde National Park

Today we are driving 35 miles west of Durango to tour Mesa Verde National Park. As early as 1854 white men had entered the Canyon but had not explored the Cliff Dwellings. In 1874 W. H. Jackson entered the first Cliff Dwelling. He named the two-story structure on Ute Mountain, Cliff House. Then in 1891 a Swede by the name of Gustaf Nordenskiold was the first scientist to visit the Cliff Dwellings; he collected more than 600 specimens. A national park was established in 1906 to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Puebloans both atop the mesas and in the cliff dwellings below.

The first Puebloans first came to Mesa Verde (meaning “green table” in Spanish) around 608. They had been nomadic people but were beginning to lead more settled lives. As hunters and gatherers, they began to clear land, plant crops on the top of the mesas, and hunt for their meat. The women tended the fields and grew vegetables. They became known as the Basket Makers, but the quality of their wonderful baskets lessened as they later learned to make pottery. By trading with people traveling through their villages, they acquired the bow and arrow.

Early Puebloans lived in pithouses dug a few feet into the ground with timbers sunk into the four corners to support the roof. Inside firepots had air deflectors. Winters can be quite harsh in New Mexico. After about 600 more years (1100-1300), they began to build rather elaborate homes of stone and mud in the protective alcoves of the mesas. Some of the dwellings were built 3 stories high with inner passages. Amazingly, it would take a man about a day to fashion just one building stone with his primitive stone tools. Many structures were erected from under the mesa, but the rooftops were above ground. Archeologists have documented the ceremonial rooms (kivas), kitchens, and meeting rooms. Ceremonial rooms were gathering places for various purposes and visited by neighboring tribes. These talented Native Americans moved on south around 1300 to what we now call Southern Arizona and New Mexico. There is no record as to why they left. Perhaps it had to do with a severe drought or with political or social issues. Maybe they heard about warmer climates in the South. They were eventually assimilated into other tribes. Today’s Pueblo people are descendents of these early cliff dwellers.

There are four tours offered in this park. One must be on a ranger-led tour to visit the cliff dwellings. We visited Cliff Palace, along with 30 French tourists. The dwellings ranged from one-room cottages to the Cliff Palace with 150 rooms. Everyone was gracious and our ranger well informed. We walked up and down many steps, and then had to climb five or six ladders just as those Ancient Puebloans did. Gloria climbed them all like a pro with no mishaps or residual shoulder pain. After the tour we drove around the edge of the huge gorge and viewed many of the cliff dwellings from the opposite side of their locations. The artifacts in the visitor center were all found in the gorge. This magnificent national park is a “must-do” if you are traveling anywhere near Northwest New Mexico.