Mesa Verde is perhaps the most well known of all the ancient ruins. Mesa Verde is located in the south western corner of Colorado just east of Cortez. I highly recommend that you spend a day in the park if you ever have the opportunity. There are many ruins that you can see from the road side view points. Some of the ruins are only available during organized tours. The tours are great because the park rangers are very knowledgeable and will point out many interesting aspects that you would not otherwise see or understand.
Some of the ruins, such as the one above, are closed to the public and can only be seen from overlooks provided by the park. This is an effort to preserve the ruins for the future. Even the air space over the ruins is off bounds to aircraft since the vibration from the engines could cause increased erosion.
This site is known as the "Cliff Palace" and is available during tours.
Many of the sites are available for self guided tours also.
The sheer magnitude of the ruins is breath taking.
Some are simply inaccessible. Moving from site to site must have been quite the adventure hundreds of years ago.
Official Mesa Verde web page
Return to my Ruins Directory
E-mail: ron@neartime.com