Mesa Verde National Park

07/23/11 - 07/29/11

I stayed at an RV Park just outside Mesa Verde National Park for a week. The first couple of days I used for a little rest and relaxation after the photography workshop last week. I then spent a couple of days in the park. The park protects many archeological sites of the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called the Anasazi). These sites include houses and villages on top of the mesa as well as cliff dwellings built in natural alcoves of canyon walls.

The cliff dwellings are only accessible through ranger-led tours. I took a couple of these tours, Cliff Palace and Balcony House, and found them to be very interesting. Getting to and from these cliff dwellings was half the fun, especially at Balcony House. The tour included climbing a 32 foot ladder, crawling on hands and knees through an 18 inch wide tunnel, and climbing two more 10-foot ladders on the canyon wall.

The first three photos below are from some of the sunsets I saw from the campground. The remaining photos are from the park.

Steve Winker