Getting There
So, we left Folsom Thursday, May 18 and drove east on Hwy 50 through Nevada and Utah. Then we headed southeast to the bottom-left corner of Colorado to arrive at our RV park Tuesday, May 22, one mile from Mesa Verde National Park and 30 miles from Durango, CO. Now we begin our sightseeing!
Mesa Verde National Park
Okay, here is the REAL story of the Pueblo Indians at Mesa Verde, honestly! This is based on knowledgably accounts from archeologists. And, of course, the archeologists know exactly what happened!
The Anasazi ("Ancient Ones") lived in the four corners area (corners of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona) beginning about 200 AD. The Pueblo are their kin. Mesa Verde (Table Green or Green Table) is a specific flat plateau in southwest Colorado with steep slopes on several sides. This is where the Mesa Verde Pueblos lived and the Mesa Verde National Park is specific to this area (okay, it also includes the Wetherill Mesa nearby).
So, the Mesa Verde Pueblos understood that they would be creating a lasting archeological site that would someday not only become a United States National Park but would also be a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Awesome, they felt the burden of this great responsibility!
About 550 AD, they started developing communities on the mesa and in the cliff alcoves. To begin with, they lived in shallow pit houses and made very elaborate baskets to be displayed in the future museum. At first, pit houses were rectangular pits dug a couple of feet deep with a roof built on poles and covered with mud. Later rounder ones appeared and were called kivas. Over the years, the pit houses/kivas were dug deeper and deeper; you know, like keeping up with the Jones.
About 750 AD, the Jones started building houses above ground with pole and mud sides. By AD 1,000, the Smiths were building above ground with double thick stone walls. Now, you know this was a challenge to the Jones… By this time, there were thousands of Pueblos living in and around the mesa in many communities and they had moved on from basket making to making highly decorated clay pots, because they wanted them to be displayed in the future museum.
Now about 1,225 AD, the Jones and the Smiths got together and started to move back into the cliff alcoves and building complex multistory community structures. These are the cliff dwellings that we are so impressed with today. The logistics of moving all of the building materials and then living supplies into the cliff alcoves was quite a feat!
Now it gets interesting!!! The archeologists found that in 1,282 AD, all of the Mesa Verde Pueblos came together to hold an election for a new Supreme Mesa Verde Chief. The new Chief, Trumpster with Feathers in Rear, promised to fix all the problems that the Mesa Verde Pueblos were facing: no more immigration from the south (build a wall to stop it), no more taxes, better trade deals, no more regulations, and no worries about the overwhelming debt the tribes were incurring. The cliff dwelling developers were ecstatic; it was all about big business.
The mystery that has stumped the archeologists to this day is what happened to the Mesa Verde Pueblos? By 1,300 AD, they disappeared. Was it some form of a natural disaster? Did an extraterrestrial invasion steal them away? Did Chief Trumpster's policies doom them? We will never know, …or will we?
 Mesa Verde National Park Visitor Center |
 The view from Mesa Verde |
 Another view from Mesa Verde |
 The Smiths early pit house. Shallow pit in ground. The top walls and roof long gone. |
 The Jones early pit house. Deeper pit in ground--warm and cooler. Fire pit in the middle with fresh air draft hole at the rear. Vertical stone by draft hole to divert airflow around room. |
 Okay, the Smiths had to go deeper. |
 The Jones go even deeper! |
 The Smiths McMansion pit house (or kiva - rounder and may have been for community use) |
 Remains of an above ground structure |
 One of many Mesa Verde cliff alcoves. Complete with above ground, multistory stone, brick, and mud walls and roofs. |
 Looking across a valley at another alcove. |
 Another one! |
 The famous Cliff Palace from across the valley |
 Closeup of Cliff Palace |