Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park lies in Montezuma County in southwest Colorado, near the towns of Cortez and Mancos. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the act creating it on 29 June 1906, the first national park set up to protect the works of people rather than natural scenery. UNESCO listed it in 1978, in the first group of World Heritage Sites.

Ancestral Puebloan people lived on the mesa from about 550 to 1300 AD. At first they farmed the mesa top and built pit houses and later stone villages. In the late 1100s and 1200s they moved into alcoves in the canyon walls and built the cliff dwellings for which the park is known. By about 1300 they had left the area, moving south to present day New Mexico and Arizona, where their descendants include the Pueblo peoples.

The park protects about 5,000 known archaeological sites, around 600 of them cliff dwellings. Cliff Palace, the largest, has about 150 rooms and 23 kivas, the round ceremonial chambers. Balcony House is reached by ladders and a narrow tunnel, and Long House is on Wetherill Mesa. Spruce Tree House can be seen from an overlook near the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum.

The Mesa Top Loop Road leads to overlooks and excavated sites showing how building styles changed over 700 years, and the museum displays pottery, tools and baskets. Wildlife includes mule deer and wild turkeys, and the mesas give long views over the Four Corners region.

The National Park Service charges 30 US dollars per private vehicle from 1 May to 31 October and 20 dollars from November to April, valid for seven days. Motorcycles pay 25 dollars in summer and 15 in winter, and people on foot or bicycle aged 16 and over pay 15 dollars. An annual Mesa Verde pass costs 55 dollars. Entering the main cliff dwellings is possible only on ranger guided tours, which require separate tickets booked ahead. The visitor centre is at the park entrance off US Highway 160, and the drive to Chapin Mesa takes about 45 minutes.