On a high sandstone plateau in the south-west corner of Colorado, the Ancestral Puebloan people lived for about seven hundred years, from roughly the sixth century to the end of the thirteenth, and in the last century or so of that time they built their homes in the shelter of the cliffs. Mesa Verde, the Green Table, takes its Spanish name from the pinon and juniper that cover the mesa top. The cliff dwellings, tucked beneath overhanging rock, are among the best preserved in North America, and Cliff Palace, the biggest of them, has around a hundred and fifty rooms and many circular ceremonial chambers called kivas.
The people left around 1300, after a long drought and a time of upheaval, and moved south, and their descendants are among today's Pueblo peoples of New Mexico and Arizona. Cowboys looking for stray cattle found the cliff dwellings in 1888, and the area was made a national park in 1906, the first in the United States set aside to protect the work of human hands. Many of the dwellings can only be seen on ranger-led tours, which involve ladders and narrow passages and need to be booked, and the details, including closures for conservation, change from season to season, so check the park's information before you go.
The approach is part of the experience. Highway 160 runs along the foot of the mesa, and the park road climbs from the entrance through a series of switchbacks, with speed limits set low and long views over the Montezuma Valley. The mesa top is about 2,100 to 2,600 metres high, so the air is thin and temperatures can drop quickly in the evening. Summer thunderstorms bring lightning, and snow in winter can close parts of the park road. Late spring and early autumn are the best times, with fewer visitors than in July and August. Wildlife includes mule deer, wild turkeys and the occasional black bear.
Fill up before heading up the mesa, and carry water.