January
24
/ 2014
Mesa Verde is a green sanctuary for the soul. Located in southwestern Colorado near the Four Corners region, this massive geological uplift was once home to many Ancestral Puebloans, the term that has recently supplanted “Anasazi” in the archaeological world. Mesa Verde is Spanish for “green table,” and the area covered with juniper and piñon trees indeed provided refuge from the harsher and drier landscape of the high desert below. Some of the continent’s most spectacular cliff dwellings are found here, including Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House. Occupied between 600 and 1300 AD, the mesa is cut by numerous canyons running generally north and south. These canyons are pocketed with giant rock alcoves under which the ancient people built
