Spectacular Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. They chose Mesa Verde as their settlement 1,400 years ago, establishing small pithouses (large holes in the ground with a wooden roof overhead) on the mesa tops. Today, Mesa Verde National Park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde is UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the southwestern corner of the state of Colorado.

credit: Dougtone