An archeologist’s dream park. At the Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park.
This post is about the first of the four national parks we visited on our southwest vacation. We tried to jam this visit in during our drive to the Grand Canyon, and it was admittedly a really tight fit.
We spent about 3 hours in the park, but it could easily be turned into a 1-2 day visit. There was a lot we elected not to see.
Mesa Verde National Park is only about 35 miles west of Durango on U.S. Route 160. We got a nice early start from our hotel in Durango and reached the park before 8am. Once you exit west from Durango, the Rocky Mountains begin to disappear in the rearview mirror and you are left with the buttes and mesas that are characteristic of the American Southwest.
After a few minutes at the visitor’s center, it was a slow climb up into the mesas to get to the Spruce Tree House cliff dwellings. This area of the park is only about halfway through; there is quite a bit more to see, but in the interest of time we told ourselves “We’ll come back here one day.”
We had visited cliff dwellings before, at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings just west of Colorado Springs. Those structures were moved from a collapsed cliff dwelling in Cortez, Colorado (just northwest of Mesa Verde National Park) and moved to Manitou Springs. We were familiar with the history of the Anasazi peoples who lives in the Four Corners region as far back as the 12th century.
There was plenty of parking at Spruce Tree House and the nearby museum. We visited the museum and then took the 1/3 mile trail down into a canyon to see the artifacts. The trail was pretty much straight down, with lots of switchbacks.
Timmy ready to explore the museum. The WPA-era architecture is worth seeing.
Jacob was pretty happy on this trip. I don’t see those smiles often these days, but he was enjoying the geology of the southwest.
We had a beautiful day at the park, but with the dry climate it’s still important to carry enough water down to the cliff dwellings.
Switchbacks on the trail down to the Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling.
Enjoying the assorted parts of the cliff dwelling. Each area had a very specific purpose: living, eating, or worshiping.
You could climb down into a small area that I believe was used for worship. It was a tight fit, and there was a line to get up and down the ladder. The kids enjoyed seeing it.
There was much more to see, including the Petroglyph Trail, the Balcony House area, and the Cliff Palace area. We chose to see those areas at another time and continued on the road out of the park westward towards the Grand Canyon. We hope to return one day to spend more time there.
Mesa Verde National Park is easily accessed via U.S. 160 in southwestern Colorado, near the town of Cortez.
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