ExploreElephant Butte, New Mexico
ExploreInspiration
Show allNATIONAL PARKMesa Verde National Park In southwestern Colorado, 9 miles east of Cortez, Mesa Verde National Park is one of the nation's major archeological preserves. The park consists of nearly 5,000 archeological sites, which include 600 cliff dwellings that were the homes of ancestral Pueblo people. Mesa Verde, Spanish for “green table,” is so called because of its comparatively level top, forested with juniper and pinyon trees. The national park encompasses 81 square miles, rises 1,800 to 2,000 feet above the valley along the north side and slopes gradually down to the cliffs bordering the Mancos River Canyon.