Nestled in the Rockies of Southwest Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park is a strange place that is neither a ‘mesa’ nor ‘verde’ (or Spanish at all for that matter).
Let me just preface this post by saying that this Park and the next Park I am visiting are both very strange- so if you are looking for epic landscapes full of mountains, waterfalls, and desert rocks, maybe ignore this blog for the next 2 weeks.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I present to you my journey to Mesa Verde National Park, a bizarre land that was once the home of the Puebloan people. Starting in the late 1190s, for one reason or another, the Puebloans began carving their villages into the rock cliffs of Southwest Colorado. Then, in the late 1270s, they abruptly began to leave, abandoning these impressive rock structures for the rest of eternity.
Nearly 500 years would pass before a recorded expedition would find these villages, with the Spanish explorer “Don Juan Maria de Rivera” stumbling upon them in 1765. Strangely, “Don Juan” did not find these villages to of notable significance, and it would take a follow-up exploration in 1859 by geologist Dr. John S Newberry before any serious study would be done on the region. From that point on, the area now known as “Mesa Verde” (evidently named in honor of Don Juan’s Spanish roots) grew in fame, culminating with President Theodore Roosevelt leading the charge to make it a National Park in 1906.
Receiving about 500,000 visitors per year, Mesa Verde is primarily designed as a ”drive-thru Park”- paved roads connect all of the various viewpoints, there are very few hikes of any significance, and the Park closes at 5pm. It takes about 7 hours to get there from Denver (we stopped midway in the rafting town of Buena Vista- which is strangely pronounced as “Bew-Nuh Vista” by the locals) and tours of the ruins are available on a first come first serve basis at the Visitor’s Center- so if you plan on doing one, I would advise arriving at the park right when it opens.
That’s all for now- my next park is the smallest and perhaps oddest Park in the system, “Hot Springs National Park” near Little Rock, Arkansas. So long!
-MB
Bonus Images:
