Mesa Verde, Colorado.
For centuries, it seems that condos have been a thing in Colorado. For over 700 years, Native Americans, the Pueblos, lived in communal homes carved deep into the canyon walls at Mesa Verde. Today, the Mesa Verde National Park shares the rich cultural heritage of 26 tribes and gives visitors a glimpse of the lives of these indigenous peoples.
About 1400 years ago, Native Americans living in southwestern Colorado started creating their homes sheltered in the cliffs of the Mesa Verde area. After seven centuries, they moved on but left their construction behind, a treasure trove of archeological history of the Pueblo people.
Even to the casual observer, it’s easy to see why these cliffs were so attractive. The area is beautiful with abundant food sources and the soft sandstone cliffs were easy to excavate and to create bricks, blocks about the size of a loaf of bread. They created a mortar of mud and water to solidify the sandstone block walls and built rooms large enough for two to three people.
From the other side of the valley with a long telephoto lens, it’s possible to see some of the details of the construction of these homes, a “condo” housing some 60 to 90 people. You can see an artist’s rendition of the Spruce Tree House as it might have looked in 1250 AD here.
The design of the park allows the visitor to easily view the layouts of several different residential areas. According to documents on the Mesa Verde National Park website, most of the dwellings were built between 1190 A.D. and 1270 A.D. The biggest of these condos were villages housing more than 150 rooms. A wealth of information about the people who lived during that time can be found in this PDF file here.
The valley is wide with lush growth and the people grew crops of corn, beans, and squash. They also hunted small game, rabbits, squirrels, and deer. They used the abundant pinyon and juniper trees for building and for firewood. They also raised turkeys.
The term “Mesa Verde” is Spanish for “green table”. The area comprises some 52,000 acres on Colorado Plateau near the four corners borders of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The valley floors are around 6,000 feet (1,828 m) above sea level and the highest points in the area rise to over 8,000 feet (2,438 m). The terrain gently rises from the south end of the park to the north.
It is possible to visit the cliff dwellings on ticketed tours, but you need to order tickets in advance at recreation.gov or by phone at 877.444.6777. Be sure to order tickets well in advance, the tours are very popular. As a result, we didn’t get a chance to go on any of the guided tours.
For those who don’t mind a short hike, you can visit the Step House on a self-guided tour. You get on the trail at the Wetherill Mesa kiosk. It is a one-mile (1.6 km) trail but is relatively steep. The National Park website says to allow 45 minutes to visit Step House. A ranger is stationed there to answer questions.
You can easily spend an entire day visiting the mesas that are open for viewing. Wetherill Mesa and its nearby trails alone usually take three to four hours, more if you are interested in exploring in greater detail.
There are more images of our visit to Mesa Verde that you can find in my Flickr album here. You can click on any of the images above to view it in 2K HD from my Flickr site and scroll through the entire gallery.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
That would be fascinating to se John 🙂
There are many of these condos in the park. It’s truly an interesting experience.
Thanks for this tour of Mesa Verde. It’s hard to imagine how they lived in those dwellings.
They surely must not have been afraid of heights. From what we saw, they knew how to build ladders that could be withdrawn to protect themselves.
We saw similar dwellings at Montezuma Well in Arizona. I think it’s amazing how they created homes without destroying the environment, but accommodating to it. Whereas we………
Well said!
😊
Amazing. From a distance, they are not unlike hives.
I would have liked to see them close up, but we needed an appointment and hadn’t got one soon enough.
It’s a fascinating place! Never seen something like that before! Thanks for sharing!
Indeed. There are similar constructions throughout the southwest.
That’s amazing.
This is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit. It reminds me of the Gila Cliff dwellings we saw in NM but these ruins are far more extensive. I would say they look like low rise apartment blocks or blocks of flats, but I guess that’s what you mean by condos?
Yeah, the term “condo” was poetic license on my part. >grin<
😂
Mesa Verde NP is a very interesting place to visit! Your flickr photo album has wonderful photos of the area. I went on a guided your a few years ago and wished I had signed up for more.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t got our reservations for the day we were there before they were all filled up.
Wow what a unique and interesting place to explore and photograph. I would love to visit one day. Thanks for sharing and have a good day ☺️ Aiva
It is indeed, Aiva!
Fascinating. Thanks for the links,I had no idea what a complex society they had, complete with trades and trading.
Before visiting similar places in the southwestern United States, I was unaware of the lifestyle of these early Americans as well.
Such a beautiful place and on my shortlist of must-see’s, John. My daughters visited there with their grandparents years ago and they also thought they looked like condos! Thanks for the info and fabulous pics!
I’ve been to this place and it is one of the most fascinating places. I love historic sites like this.
Next time we go, I’ll get reservations for the tour in advance of our journey.
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A worth visiting place to know how ancister lived.
Almost looks like an apartment complex.
Love your description.
Clicks are all tele.
People are not allowed to have a glimpse from close corners?
Another place I’m looking forward to visiting again, John. We visited when the girls were quite young and while I was not excited to go up one of the rather high ladders our older daughter zipped right up. Thanks for bringing up a good memory and sharing your lovely photos.
janet
Now I have a new place to visit! Incredible, John! Cher xoxoxo
When you go, take more time than we did. We wanted a tour, but when we had our date set, they were full up with appointments.
Good to know, John! Thank you so much for the excellent advice!
I tend to gravitate toward ancient/historical sites when I travel. So naturally, Mesa Verde is on my wishlist of places I want to see in the US one day in the future. The thing is, there are so many things to see in your country I’m not sure in my first trip to the States I can make it to this corner of Colorado. In the meantime, I should be content with seeing this place vicariously through others’ blog posts, like yours. Thanks for sharing this.
It is notes like yours that encourage me to continue sharing the interesting and unique places in the United States. Thanks for taking the time to comment.