The Magic of Mesa Verde

Even today in this modern age of super highways, wi-fi and fast food joints, it remains hidden. Travel past miles and miles of open, untouched desert that is seemingly endless. Turn right, left, then left again and the haunting landscape is eerily the same in every direction. A light, ...

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Mesa Verde National Park: Protecting the Culture of Ancient Native Americans

It was cold that day in eighteen eighty-eight in southwestern Colorado. Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law were trying to find some missing cattle. They were up on Mesa Verde. Spanish explorers had named the area. The high, flat mountaintop is covered with many green juniper and pinon pine trees. ...

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At Mesa Verde, cliff dwellings and ancient artifacts bring Native American history to life

At Mesa Verde National Park, visitors can walk in the footsteps - and right into the homes - of the ancestral Puebloans who lived here a thousand years ago. A trip to the park, in southwestern Colo., located about five hours north of Santa Fe, N.M., provides a fascinating, hands-on ...

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Mesa Verde’s New Guided Tours Offer a “Ticket to the Past”

Millions of visitors travel to Mesa Verde National Park each year to explore the world-renowned cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde’s new and improved guided tours offer unique insight into the Ancestral Puebloan people and their transformation from hunter-gatherers to a culture known for agriculture, intricate artistry, and architecture.   The new “Classic ...

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Top 10: Parks with American Indian Significance

In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, OhRanger.com has compiled a list of the Top 10 National Parks with American Indian and Alaska Native significance. Many of our parks are rich in history so in order to better appreciate the public lands that we visit, we must understand their ...

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Touring a Cliff Dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park

    Mesa Verde offers many summer programs and this summer you have the opportunity to explore their cliff dwellings. There are five cliff dwellings; among them are Spruce Tree House and Step House. Both of these can be explored independently, but to visit some dwellings, like Balcony House and ...

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Colorado Section of Vast Bike Network is 1,000 Miles

More than 1,000 miles of the 50,000-mile bikeway being spliced together throughout North American lies in Colorado. The Colorado portion is part of the Great Parks section, which includes 2,518 miles from Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, to Mesa Verde National Park outside of ...

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Mesa Verde among National Parks Threatened by EPA Air-Pollution Rule Change

Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the mountain range it protects were named for the natural fog that often enshrouds its peaks on the North Carolina-Tennessee border. But in recent years the nation’s most visited national park is called “Great Smoky” for another ...

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Mesa Verde National Park Grows By Nearly Half Mile

Mesa Verde National Park in the southwestern corner of the state is bigger by nearly a half square mile. The $1.6 million acquisition of the 324-acre Henneman family parcel at the entrance to the park was celebrated Saturday with visits by several dignitaries, including Sen. Ken Salazar. The land was ...

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Groups Fear Worsening Air Quality in National Parks

Environmentalists and some civic leaders are protesting proposed changes to the federal clean air law that they say will worsen pollution in several Western national parks, including Mesa Verde National Park. Advocacy groups held news conferences at the southwest Colorado park and three others Wednesday to call on the Bush ...

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Mesa Verde National Park is a Land of Mysteries

The story of Mesa Verde so intrigues visitors that few walk away without having pondered its mysteries: Why did the people who lived here build their homes in the cliff alcoves, and why did they suddenly disappear? The theories range from the mundane to the dramatic. •Perhaps the ancestral Puebloan people ...

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