Mesa Verde

Good morning from Morefield campground in Mesa Verde national park... the view as I looked out my tent door. It's another 18 mile drive to the museum. 

The "Spruce Tree House" cliff dwelling (nothing to do with a spruce tree -- just a name) is viewable from near the museum but you can no longer walk to it because the overhang is unstable and there is danger of pieces falling. The park service actually used dynamite several decades ago to make it more stable but it did the opposite. The ranger said there probably wouldn't be stability issues today if they had they not used the dynamite in the past (live and learn). Now there is controversy how to remedy it. If nothing is done and the cliff wall collapses, it is believed that the sonic boom would destroy all nearby buildings including the museum. Some of the local tribes want the cliff dwellings to be left alone to deteriorate back to their natural state.

The self-guided "Mesa Top Loop" drive and audio tour was very informative and I liked it a lot! It included a dozen stops where you park the car and take a trail to look at the remains of buildings that span about 700 years of history (about 550 AD to 1200 AD). It gave a good overview of the culture and history.

The first buildings were called pit houses, where the floors were dug out below ground level to help moderate the winter/summer temperatures. The above ground parts were wood and mud, which no longer exist, so you have to use your imagination and look at tha artist renderings of what life was like.

Over time, they transitioned to single story stone villages, and eventually to multi-story cliff dwellings, and finally they migrated away and abandoned everything. You can take as long as you like, stopping and resuming the audio tour at each site and also reading descriptions on posted signs.

You could look out on the canyon and see multiple cliff dwellings spread out across the canyon walls. There was a really large community here. I can understand why this park got world heritage site status.

There are a couple other roads where you can get closer views of some of the cliff dwellings, and an area of mesa-top villages you can explore on foot. The park service has done a very good job with the park and it is well worth visiting.

I saw some interesting tree textures on the short hikes I took around the area.

There were some burn area on the top of the mesa, but there were some pretty views and, of course, a smoke tower that took automated photos at designated time intervals.

I really liked the views of the nearby La Plata mountains.

It was pretty much an all day experience for me. Then I drove to a nearby dispersed camping area I had been told about. I arrived just before dark and spent the night in my car.