Page 186 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Southwest USA & National Parks

184  THE FOUR C ORNERS THE FOUR C ORNERS  185

a Mesa Verde National Park VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
Balcony House
This high, forested mesa overlooking the Montezuma Possibly built or adapted for Practical Information
Valley was home to the Ancestral Puebloan people (see defense, Balcony House could Road map D2. n P. O. Box 8,
p42) for more than 700 years. Within canyons that cut not be seen from above. Access Mesa Verde, CO 81330 (970) 529-
was (and still is) difficult. Visitors
4465. Visitor and Research
through the mesa are some of the best-preserved and must climb three ladders high Center: Open daily.
most elaborate cliff dwellings built by these people. above the canyon floor, then Chapin Mesa Archaeological
Mesa Verde, meaning “Green Table,” was a name given to crawl through a tunnel to Museum: Open daily.
the area by the Spanish in the 1700s, but the ruins were exit the site. & 7 8 - = 0
∑ nps.gov/meve
not widely known outside the area until the late 19th Spruce Tree House
century. This site provides a fascinating record of these Tucked into an alcove in a cliff, these Towers were probably used Transport
~ Cortez and Durango. No
people from the Basketmaker period, beginning around three-story structures probably housed for signalling or as lookouts public transport to the park.
AD 550, to the complex society that built the many- as many as 100 people. for defense.
roomed cliff dwellings between 1000 and
1250. Displays at the Visitor and Research
Center and the Chapin Mesa Museum provide
a good introduction.

Guided Tours Square Tower House
Ranger-led tours give visitors a chance to actually Early cowboys named this site for this
enter the ruins and get a feel for the daily lives of prominent, tower-like central structure.
these ancient people. It was actually a vertical stack of rooms
that was once surrounded by other
rooms and it may have been used as a
Cliff Palace dwelling or for ceremonial purposes.
With 150 rooms, this is the largest Ancestral
Puebloan cliff dwelling found anywhere, and is
the site that most visitors focus on. The location The 23 kivas at this site may have
served a variety of ceremonial, social,
and symmetry suggest that architecture was and utilitarian purposes, and may
important to the builders. Begun around 1200, indicate that many different clans lived
it was vacated around 1275. here at various times.
Hwy 160 Visitor and
Research Center Mesa Verde National Park
Morefield Village
Most visitors start at the Visitor and
Research Center, and then continue to
Far View Area Chapin Mesa, which holds the highest
concentration of sites open to the public.
Spruce Tree Wetherill Mesa
House Key Long House
Scenic route A scenic 12-mile (19-km)
Park boundary drive on a winding
mountain road leads to
Wetherill Wetherill Mesa, named for
Mesa the local rancher, Richard
Wetherill, who found Cliff
Cliff Palace 0 km 5 Palace in the 1880s. Two
Chapin cliff dwellings here, Step
Mesa 0 miles 5 and Long houses, are
Museum Balcony House open to visitors.
For hotels and restaurants see p241 and pp256–7 For keys to symbols see back flap The Rio Chama near Abiquiu in O’Keeffe Country, New Mexico

184-185_EW_SW_USA.indd 184 28/11/17 12:41 PM 184-185_EW_SW_USA.indd 185 28/11/17 12:41 PM
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Starsight template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2.7)
Date 24th April 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm