Mesa Verde National Park

Wishing to visit Mesa Verde National Park took some planning. Mapping out visits to our national parks always does, these are not places you simply pass by. They require intention. 

For this trip, the best place to begin was Durango, Colorado. From there, the drive slowly brings us into a landscape that feels both open and ancient at the same time.

Built into the rock, almost hidden within it, are the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people, constructed more than 700 years ago. From a distance, it is hard to fully understand what you are looking at. The scale, the placement, the thought behind building an entire community within the shelter of stone.

These were not temporary structures. They were homes, carefully placed beneath the overhang of the cliff for protection, for shade, and perhaps for reasons we still do not fully understand. Standing there, looking across at them, you begin to realize that this was a fully functioning community, built into the landscape rather than on top of it.

Mesa Verde holds a unique place in our national parks system. It was established in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, specifically to preserve these cultural and archaeological sites, one of the first times a national park was created not just for natural beauty, but to protect the history of the people who lived here. 

Getting here takes time. Planning the route, the places to stay and making the drive, all become part of the experience.  

Places like this are reminders of how people lived, adapted and built something lasting in a world very different from our own.