Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado, preserves some of the most remarkable and best-preserved archaeological sites in North America: the elaborate cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people, who built multi-storey stone villages into the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. The largest, Cliff Palace, has about 150 rooms and 23 kivas (ceremonial chambers) tucked beneath a great sandstone overhang.

People farmed the mesa tops and lived in the area for over 700 years, from around AD 600 to 1300, building the famous cliff dwellings in the last century or so before migrating away. Mesa Verde is both a U.S. National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, protecting thousands of archaeological sites.

Late spring through early autumn is the main season, when guided cliff-dwelling tours run; summer is busiest and can be hot on the mesa. The road and viewpoints offer dramatic scenery, and autumn brings fewer crowds.

The Ancestral Puebloans first lived in pit houses on the mesa tops, gradually developing masonry architecture and, by around AD 1190, the cliff dwellings for which Mesa Verde is famous. These defensible, sheltered villages — Cliff Palace, Balcony House, Spruce Tree House, and many smaller ones — housed communities that farmed corn, beans, and squash above.

Within a century the people left, likely driven by prolonged drought, resource depletion, and social pressures, migrating south to become the modern Pueblo peoples of New Mexico and Arizona. Ranchers rediscovered the major dwellings in the late 1800s, and the area became the first U.S. national park created to protect cultural rather than natural features, in 1906.

The park is reached via U.S. Highway 160 between Cortez and Mancos, Colorado; a long, winding park road climbs to the mesa-top sites and overlooks. The major cliff dwellings (Cliff Palace, Balcony House) can only be entered on ranger-guided ticketed tours that involve ladders and steep stairs.

Mesa Verde is sacred to today's Pueblo peoples, who trace their ancestry to its builders. Its architecture, kivas, pottery, and rock art reveal a sophisticated society with rich ceremonial life, skilled masonry, and deep ties to the cycles of farming and the landscape.

Book ranger-led tours in advance, and be prepared for ladders, narrow passages, and altitude (over 2,000 m). Don't miss the overlooks and the smaller, self-guided sites if tour tickets are sold out.