Mesa Verde National Park - April 16, 2003

Cliff Palace

Mesa Verde, redux. As I mentioned on the opening page, I did visit here summer of 2002, less than a year ago as of this writing. At that time, due to a number of fires in southwest Colorado and the threat of more, most of the park was closed. The rangers were spending a lot of time cleaning up the brush to prevent fire, or at least reduce the risk that any fire would be really bad. And, about a month after that visit, there was indeed a fire at Mesa Verde. I am not sure exactly which parts of the park were affected.

This time around, no threat of fire. It was a beautiful day, sunny, about 50-60 degrees. Normally, and this was the case on this day, Long Mesa was closed. Long Mesa is normally open for the summer, and it was open for my visit the previous summer. Since April is definitely not summer, it was closed. Cliff Palace, Far View House, Chapin Mesa, those areas which were closed during my previous visit, were now open. And the point of my visit this time around was to visit those areas. So I did.

The picture above is of Cliff Palace. Some debate exists about whether this dwelling or Long House is the largest structure at Mesa Verde. They are both impressive.

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park

Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde National Park

Square Tower, Mesa Verde National Park

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