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Places, Earth |
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State Parks, Historic Sites, and Museums need your help.Places Earth recently encountered closed state parks in Arizona and California is threatening to close all state parks. The story is similar throughout the country. Places Earth urges everyone to support these vital and important public resources any way you can. Please find a worthy local or distant historic site or museum that is in financial danger and donate your treasure, time, and talent. Write to your governor and other elected officials telling them to find a way to keep these parks open. It will be your loss. Public Service Announcement |
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Mesa Verde National Park
All photographs taken by Kenneth A. Larson. All rights reserved. © 2008 - 2010.| Mesa Verde National Park was created in 1906 to preserve the large collection of mesa top and cliff side dwellings of the pueblo people. Over 4,500 known archeological site, about 600 cliff side dwellings, lie within the park boundaries. These structures were first built about 600 AD by people once called Anasazi, which is Navajo for the ancient foreigners, but now are called Ancestral Puebloans. Early shelters were cliff top stone structures and for reasons not clear, they evolved into elaborate structures built into the concave sides of the canyons, which provided shelter and perhaps protection from enemies. Then shortly before 1300 AD, in the span of a generation or two, they left leaving only these magnificent structures and questions. These people created pottery, baskets, arts and culture. There construction skills allowed them to make sturdy straight walls of carved sandstone blocks held together with dirt mortar. They subsisted mostly on farming and some hunting, storing enough to see them through the harsh winters. |
| The park allows visitors to trace the development of mesa top and cliff side dwellings from several different periods adding to the understanding of how these communities evolved. |
| The Far View Visitor Center is about in the center of the park, 15 miles from the entrance and is placed at the junction of the two roads leading to the mesas and the main road connecting the park to HIghway 160 in southwest Colorado. It is open from early April to mid-October. The Chapin Mesa Museum is 21 miles from the entrance and adjacent to the Spruce Tree House cliff side community and is open year around. The road system is roughly an inverted Y with one branch, the Wetherill Mesa, closed in winter. The other branch remains open and includes Chapin Mesa Museum and many fine examples of dwellings and also includes the Cliff Palace Loop which is also closed in winter. When this author visited on May 22, 2008, the road to Wetherill Mesa was not to open until the following week and he cut short his visit to Chapin Mesa because of an unseasonal snow storm. |
| Many of the sites are self guided, but Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House require tickets so allow time and get your tickets early. This author recommends allowing at least a day to see the park. |
| The park is in the remote southwest corner of Colorado, near the Four Corners area. |
 Sign at entrance to Mesa Verde National Park |
 This masa is one of the first sights when entering the park. |
 Dead trees near Park Point |
 Dead trees south of Far View. |
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Park Point is the highest spot in Mesa Verde National Park and is topped with a fire lookout station. | |
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 Megalithic House  |
Research Center near Chapin Mesa Museum.
The
Spruce Tree House is the easiest cliff dwelling to reach and is behind the Museum.
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 Interior of a Kiva. |
 Interior of a Kiva. |
 Interior of a Kiva. |
 Interior of a Kiva. |
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 Sun Point View |
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 Sun Point View |
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 Sun Point View |
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 Sun Point View |
 Oak Tree House at far right. |
 Oak Tree House. |
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Sun Temple.
Fire Temple
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Cliff Palace
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 Visitor Center beyond falling snow. |
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| The car covered with snow after about five minutes stopped. | |
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 Car. |
 Motorcycle. |
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| Montezuma County Main Page |
This page last updated: Tuesday, 23-Dec-2008 23:58:11 CST
| Note: This is not the official site for any of the places shown in Places Earth. Places Earth is not responsible for accuracy of the information. Hours of operations, prices, exhibits, and sometimes locations are subject to change without notice. |
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This web site started because of my love for Architecture and interest in History. This web site is for your benefit and I make no profit on it. I don't allow paid advertising. This site is supported primarily from my regular paycheck as a Set Designer and there haven' been many this year. My wife sells Gold Canyon products at www.valleygirlcandles.com and I sell art at www.klimages.com. A non-tax deductable donation to help cover the cost of operating this web site may be made to Kesign Design Consulting through PayPal ... | ||
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This site maintained by Kenneth A. Larson. Copyright © 2004 - 2010, Kenneth A. Larson. All Rights Reserved. Website content including photographic and graphic images may not be redistributed for use on another website. |
| This site is a non-commercial alternative to my commercial design portfolio site. This site's only purpose is for your enjoyment. There is no advertising and I make no profit. If you are in the need of a designer, please check my commercial site www.kesigndesign.com. |
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