Mesa Verde National Park, CO

A thousand years ago, Pueblo Indians built villages in cliff openings in this mountain mesa. Now they are part of a national park in Colorado called Mesa Verde. We visited in the off season, so weren't able to book ranger tours of the cliff dwellings and actually walk in the dwellings. But we did the next best thing. After a 45 minute drive from the visitor center, we walked a short path to the overlook of Cliff Palace, the largest and most breathtaking of these cliff dwellings. Built in the 1200s, the Cliff Palace is not only the largest cliff dwelling in North America, but archeologists now think the Cliff Palace may have been the capital of cliff dwellings in the area, devoted to religious ceremonies and administration. My Cliff Palace brochure says that regardless, it is "an architectural masterpiece by any standard." I agree.

The Cliff Palace was chanced upon by two cowboys, Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason, in 1888, though the Ute Indians had always known about it. It later became a tourist attraction, with many artifacts pillaged until the whole area was set aside as a national park and access was carefully controlled.

The Cliff Plalace was mostly contstructed from 1260-1280, based on dating of the wood beams. Sandstone and the makings of mortar were readily available, but water had to be hauled in. The Palace has 150 rooms (!), a combination of living rooms, storage rooms, special chambers and "kivas" (special ceremonial or social rooms). The palace also has finely crafted towers, the Indian version of skyscrapers.

We walked down steel stairs to view the palace. The original inhabitants used hand-and-toe holds carved in the cliffs, and ladders. They would climb up to the flat top of the mesa to tend their crops and down again to their homes.

By 1300 C.E., most Puebloans had left these little villages. Why? It's still a guess but a long term drought may have forced them out. The Hopi, the Zuni, Acoma, Lanuan and Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico consider this place the home of their ancestors. From May to October, you can reserve ranger tours to actually step inside the cliff dwellings. I hope to come back and do just that.