They say timing is everything. We discovered that to be true in a number of ways as we visited Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest of Colorado. This was our second of three national parks on our agenda for this trip. It was quite a different experience from our visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park.
The main focus of Mesa Verde National Park is preserving the Native American structures and sharing about their culture. Established in 1906, the park has a long history developing its message. It contains over 4,500 archeological sites. Its importance was recognized in 1978 when the park was designated a World Heritage Site.
Mesa Verde is also a large park. We spent a lot of our time in the park driving, and we did not see everything there is to see. That’s where timing comes into play. We enjoy traveling in the shoulder season. These are the months during spring and fall when children are in school. Usually there are less people and prices can be lower.
However, when traveling in the shoulder season, we run the risk of missing things that take place in the summer. Such was the case during our visit to Mesa Verde. One of the activities I was looking forward to was being able to actually visit one of the old structures of the park with a ranger. There are a couple of structures that visitors can see if they have a guide with them. Unfortunately I discovered this begins in mid-May. We were too early and missed the chance to tour. It’s similar to not being able to reach the summit of Pikes Peak which was also a seasonal situation.
Realizing we would not be able to visit one of the structures, we set out nevertheless to experience what we could experience. We arrived at the park and almost immediately began to climb. There wasn’t anything else around to do but climb and keep driving. During our climb we would come to various viewpoints indicated on the map provided for us. We stopped at each one to get out and take photos of the scenes below.
The first overlook looked back to the Mancos valley where the town of Mancos is. At this point we were still fairly low. Just past that is a campground which has a number of amenities available including a gift shop we checked out.
We then kept climbing and passed through a tunnel before reaching the next viewpoint. The viewpoint after that reached the highest point of the park. In that location they had two viewpoints on opposite sides of the ridge. A fire lookout station sits at the top of the ridge and still functions during fire season.
After one more viewpoint we came to the area known as Far View. Here we stopped to check out another gift shop. They also had a cafe and coffee bar in the building which people seemed to appreciate.
At this point we had two options. We decided to head toward a cliff structure known as the Spruce Tree House. According to the park map we could do a self guided tour of the structure. We were looking forward to this since the other tours were not available. Unfortunately the map was wrong. When we got to the trail that leads to the tree house, it was closed for repairs. We were disappointed. We considered hiking another trail in the area, but after reading a description of it, we decided it was not for us.
At least we could see the tree house embedded in the side of a cliff. The biggest problem here was the sunshine. Since it was bright, the inside of the cave would appear quite dark. Finding the balance for the photo was tough. Fortunately it was a partly cloudy day so when the sun went behind a cloud, it was much easier to grab a well lit photo.
A museum of archeology is next to the trailhead for the Spruce Tree House. However, we didn’t take a look inside. We had other places to go.
The next part of our exploration was an area called the Mesa Top Loop. This was an interesting section as it was a one way loop passing many sites of Mesa Verde. Signs indicate various points of interest along the way, and visitors can stop to check them out. Three locations showed the basics of pit houses. The indigenous people dug holes in the ground, and then built structures over them. Visitors can see the dug out part indicating the layout of the pit houses. These are mostly under cover apparently to prevent damage from the weather.
One of the overviews in Mesa Verde looks down into a canyon. It’s a beautiful view and very grand. Just around the corner visitors can look down into a part of the canyon and see the Square Tower House. It is unexpected to see it. It’s in the same canyon we had just viewed, but sort of around the corner.
The next major view point is the Sun Point View. From this overlook visitors can see a number of cliff dwellings with the largest one called the Cliff Palace. According to the information this dwelling had 150 rooms. It’s really hard to imagine that. Other dwellings can be seen from here, some seemingly quite small compared to the palace.
Another structure we could see somewhat from this viewpoint was actually on top of the nearby cliff. It was the Sun Temple. The loop takes visitors over to the Sun Temple, but mainly all one can see is the outside walls. I did climb up on a rock and could see some of the inner walls. However, visitors aren’t given much information on the temple. Apparently it is somewhat of a mystery.
It was here that we had our final moment of, “Timing is everything.” Photographing the cliff dwellings had been a challenge, as I mentioned earlier, as a result of the bright sun. From the vantage point of the Sun Temple, we had an even closer view of the Cliff Palace. While we were there, the sun went behind a cloud. All of a sudden we could take photos that showed all the details of the dwelling. As we were leaving Mesa Verde, the sun came back out. It was perfect timing for us this time.
With that we began the trek back to the highway. The first part was climbing back up the mountain. The second part was coming down the other side. At times the steep road hugged the outside edge of the mountain, but we made it down safely.
Sadly we didn’t get to do all the things we would have liked to have done. We probably could have used another day here. Nevertheless, we did feel like we had a great experience in the park and learned a number of things about the indigenous life in this part of the country.
We still have one more national park to see before returning home. I hope you will join us next week as we continue our journey. In the meantime, keep planning those trips, and don’t forget to share your experience at Mesa Verde in the comment box below.