Cortez, CO - Alamosa, CO

SOUTHWESTERN USA
RS ROAD TRIP




August 14, 2017 (Day 7)

Cortez, CO to Alamosa, CO

Miles Today: 231 / Total Trip Miles: 1,792





Map of Today's Route

(Click on map to enlarge)

Mesa Verde National Park
Mary and I took a half-day detour from our route to Alamosa and mini-visited Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table") protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Created in 1906, the park occupies 52,485 acres, including 600 cliff dwellings. Starting c. 7500 BC, Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians. Later, Archaic people established semi-permanent rockshelters in and around the mesa. By 1000 BC, the Basketmaker culture emerged from the local Archaic population, and by 750 AD the Ancestral Puebloans had developed from the Basketmaker culture. The Mesa Verdeans survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops such as corn, beans, and squash. They built the mesa's first pueblos sometime after 650, and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known. By 1285, following a period of social and environmental instability driven by a series of severe and prolonged droughts, they abandoned the area and moved south to locations in Arizona and New Mexico. 

Spruce Tree House
(click on photo for larger image)

The Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling, located in Mesa Verde National Park, was constructed between A.D. 1211 and 1278 by the ancestors of the Pueblo peoples. The dwelling contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas, or ceremonial chambers, built into a natural alcove measuring 216 feet at greatest width and 89 feet at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people. This cliff dwelling was discovered in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. A large tree, identified as a "Douglas Spruce", was found growing from the front of the dwelling to the mesa top. The men first entered the dwelling by climbing down this tree, which was later cut down by another early explorer.
{Photo on flickr}

___________________________________________________



Tomorrow:

Explore Alamosa, Colorado and vicinity.


______________________________________________________




Copyright
These photographs are the property of Leon Jackson, and are protected by copyright laws. Photographs may not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Leon Jackson. © 2017 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved.

______________________________________________________