Mesa Verde National Park

We are in a wonderful and mysterious place – the high desert of Mesa Verde.  We are walking and living where the Ancestral Pueblo people lived their lives.  There are signs of inhabitants at this place from 550 A.D.  The cliff houses are from around 1100 A.D.  It is so quiet – very few sounds of modern civilization interfere with the sounds of wind and birds.  The spirit of the ancient people who lived here is very alive.

     When we arrived at the new Visitor C

enter the temperature was already 87 and was over 90 by the time we reached the campground.  The forest fire danger is high in these very hot, dry conditions, but so far Colorado has only had a couple small fires.  There is still a lot of green here on the mesa.  We stopped to look at the new Visitor Center which was just opened.  It is beautiful and very reflective in architecture and art of the natural environment and the native people of this area.  We enjoyed the sculpture and paintings as much as the exhibits.

   The Visitor Center is on the flats below the mesa.  To get to the campground we had to drive four miles high up onto the lower part of the mesa.  We learned at the campground office that we could just drive around and pick out a camp site that we liked.  There are almost 400 sites and we were lucky to find one tucked into the shade of some scrubby oak trees.  The back end of the campsite has a lovely little alcove under the trees which is completely shaded.  We set up our lawn chairs there and had lunch.  A young deer wandered through the brush behind our campground.

   There are many cliff dwellings within the park.  Several have Ranger led tours to them.  We took one of these tours several years ago when we visited so this time we are doing more adventuring on our own.  We drove the circle tour around one of the areas.  It was so hot and dry by late afternoon it just took my breath away.  So after a couple hours we went back to our leafy bower and read.  The breeze came up and by suppertime the temperatures were already dropping.   By 8:30 the sun had dropped behind the mountains and so did the temperatures.  After a day of 90 degree temps we had to put on a light fleece.  The campground is about 25% full now and everyone is outside enjoying the cooling evening.  It is a magical place.