Mesa Verde In Winter
This year my husband and I celebrated Christmas a little differently by visiting our son who has been living in Colorado for about a year and a half. We flew into Durango in the southwestern part of the state and spent the first 2 nights in Cortez which is about 50 miles south of where he lives. It was great to be together and we visited Mesa Verde National Park the first day. I had been there twice before but in the summer when the park was busy with other tourists. By visiting off-season we enjoyed having the place (mostly) to ourselves and the snow added a wintry element to the scenes.
Mesa Verde is Spanish for ‘green table’. The park offers an amazing look into the lives of the ancestral Pueblo people who made the cliffs their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. There are about 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings protected within the park.
‘Clouds Over Mesa Verde’ © Denise Bush
‘Mesa Verde In Winter’ © Denise Bush
‘Cliff Dwellings In Winter’ © Denise Bush
‘Ancient Apartments’ © Denise Bush
‘Cliff Palace’ © Denise Bush
‘Signs Of Life’ © Denise Bush
‘Cliff Dwelling Remains’ © Denise Bush
‘Ancient Interior’ © Denise Bush
‘View From Mesa Verde’ © Denise Bush
Filed under: Uncategorized | 13 Comments
Tags: anasazi, ancient culture, cliff dwellings, CO, Colorado, landscape, mesa verde, native american, panorama, photography, pueblo, scenic, snow, west, winter
Nice. Looks like an Arizona Highways spread.
Amazing place! I love ‘Cliff Palace’. Beautiful work as always.
I never realized that we had such dwellings in the United
States. Never been to Colorado.Thanks for taking me to a National Park.
Wonderful photos as always, Denise. I want to go there now after seeing your photos.
Thanks for looking Ralph, Bonnie and Beth. It’s a pretty cool place! There is a canyon on top of the mesa where the cliff dwellings are. The Anasazi farmed on top of the mesa and built their homes in the cliffs. They lived peacefully, hidden and protected there for hundreds of years. A rancher looking for cattle first discovered it in 1874.
And thanks Ken too. (You weren’t there when I first replied.) Let’s just call us members of the Mutual Admiration Society.
Beautiful Denise! I was there (and Durango too) in October. I need to go back and look at my pictures again to see if I have anything even half as good!
Awesome shots Denise. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for visiting Roger & Diane! I’d like to see your pictures Diane!
All are beautiful. But the cliff dwelling images are special additionally because of the distance and limited angles that you had to deal with.
They are also very well processed.
‘Love the “View from Mesa Verde”…. it looks like it goes on forever!!!
Thanks for looking Mike & Deb. There’s more to come from the CO trip. The scenery becomes more alpine-like just north of here.
Never knew those dwellings were in CO…. always thought of the southwest. Just enough snow to give a sense of time and place.