Day 7 Mesa Verde National Park
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Cortez, Colorado
After our remarkable wander through the depths of the Carlsbad Caverns, our next key destination to drive to was Mesa Verde in Cortez, New Mexico. This was a slight departure from our original plans to go to El Paso, TX to visit Kameron and Judge, who we met in St. Lucia a few months back.
COVID struck again! Kameron informed me that she and Judge were exposed to others who tested positive and while they just got tested, they’d have to wait for their results. As much of a bummer it was to miss spending time with our friends, we opted for ‘better safe than sorry’ and we know it was the best decision for all of us. Until next time Kameron and Judge!
We reassessed our route and decided that we could instead get a head start on our drive towards Mesa Verde National Park just outside of Cortez, New Mexico where we planned to stay. We arrived in Cortez, New Mexico and it was indeed a quiet and relatively remote area. So, we got some rest and woke the next day excited to explore all that Mesa Verde had to offer. The prioritized landmarks to visit in this park were the mesa top sites and cliff dwellings - with up close and personal views of the cliff dwellings as the most prized attraction.
Per the ranger’s recommendations, we started by driving the 6-mile Mesa Top Loop Trail - an auto tour of the ancient homes and villages of the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived there for more than 700 years. This tour profiled a variety of different *pithouses that had evolved and developed over hundreds of years including: Square Tower House Overlook, and views of Cliff Palace from Sun Point View and Sun Temple.
*Pithouse = semi-subterranean home
We also enjoyed the historical cliff dwellings - these represent some of the first multi-floor and family unit dwellings historically dated. Below are a few factoids direct from the Mesa Verde National Park site to shed some light on the historical significance and longevity of these cliff dwellings.
The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the North American Continent.
Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Pueblo people began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms.
While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century.
By the late 1270s, the population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona.
By 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended.
