Ah Colorado!
The Rockies, the beauty, the nature, the culture!
In the southwestern corner of the state, lies a gem, not highly visited,
yet brimming with untapped legends and culture.
Mesa Verde National Park,
was the gorgeous setting of the Pueblo people
for 700 years....
from about 600 A.D to about 1300 A.D.!
Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table,
is the largest archaeological preserve in the USA
and includes over 500 cliff dwellings!
Cliff Palace up close:
Below is a kiva, a room the Pueblos used for religions rituals.
In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt established
Mesa Verde National Park to "preserve the works of man,"
which was the first national park of
an archaeological nature.
How amazing and surreal, really,
to have the privilege of walking through the
homes and cities of the ancients!
Here are the boys on a ladder through the
largest and most intact ( and most famous)
of all the ruins in the park, Cliff Palace.
It was about 110 degrees as we were walking through the palace!
How on earth did the ancients, 1000 years ago,
without benefit of technology, air conditioning and
other amazing modern conveniences, stand it?
Simply amazing to put ourselves in their places,
if only for an afternoon!
How on earth did the ancients, 1000 years ago,
without benefit of technology, air conditioning and
other amazing modern conveniences, stand it?
Simply amazing to put ourselves in their places,
if only for an afternoon!
The kids always do work for the national parks' Junior Ranger programs.
This summer alone, they earned 17 badges as we traveled
park to park across the country.
Here's my youngest, noting info in his Jr Ranger book
more commonly known as tree ring dating!
Junior Ranger swearing-in~
Would you like some in depth info
and activities on the Pueblos' culture?
History for Kids and
Mesa Verde National Park's site
host a wealth of fascinating material.
We also found these titles to be invaluable resources
as we learned a bit about our ancient
American ancestors prior
to our trip west:
And one of my all-time, forever favorites:
(Which is not about the Pueblos, but still beautiful)
Enjoy!
My other posts in my
Visions of the Southwest series include~~
Riding the Rapids with
Mountain Waters Rafting
Friends, as always,
thank you for stopping over and
spending some of your precious time here at my home on the web!
spending some of your precious time here at my home on the web!
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Until next time,
~Chris
I'm happy to link this post to Jessica's What We're Reading Wednesday
