Mesa Verde National Park - Mesa Top Loop Road

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The day started out rainy so I held off a bit on starting my visit to Mesa Verde National Park, a fascinating archeological park that was founded in 1906 to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people, both atop the mesa and in the cliff dwellings.

I didn't get to Mesa Verde till about 10:30, whereupon I stopped for an obligatory photo with the entrance sign. No one was there so I lingered a bit, and then a van suddenly appeared, screeching to a stop behind the Outback, and out jumped a couple who were just then leaving the park but they saw me and wanted the same entrance sign photo, so they figured they would ask me to take their photo and of course I asked her to take mine. We also traded road trip stories and they were headed to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. That sounded cool so I added it to my list.

After a short stop at the Mesa Verde Visitor Center (which was closed except for the bookstore), I headed out on the park road to drive the Mesa Top Loop on the Chapin Mesa. Some of the park's key attractions were closed, including the Museum, Spruce Tree House, and the Cliff Palace Loop, so that was a bit disappointing, but I did manage to spend almost 4 hours in the park looking at the cliff dwellings (from afar) and examining early Pueblo dwellings all of them on the Mesa Top Loop. I also skipped the Wetherill Mesa as that would likely have added another two hours at least to the visit.






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