Sun Point View - A Canyon Full of Neighbors

Photo: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, a free self-guided tour.

Walk to the rail where Cliff Canyon and Fewkes Canyon meet and start counting. From this point you can pick out around a dozen cliff dwellings tucked into the alcoves around you, including Cliff Palace across the canyon.

This view changes how you think about the cliff houses. They were not lonely hideouts but a neighborhood. Families in different alcoves were linked by trails and toeholds, shared the farm fields on the mesa top, and gathered for ceremonies at bigger sites nearby.

Most of these villages were built in a short burst, from the late 1100s through the 1200s. Within a few generations, by about 1300, people had left them. Long drought, worn-out soil and firewood, conflict and new religious ideas to the south all likely played a part. They did not vanish; they moved and joined communities that are still home to their descendants.

Take a slow look with binoculars before you move on.

Getting here: Continue on the Mesa Top Loop as it swings around to the Sun Point parking area.

Did you know?: The name Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, comes from Spanish travelers in the 1700s who saw the forested mesa from the valley below.

Photo op: Find Cliff Palace across the canyon and frame it small, surrounded by cliff and sky, to show the scale.

Nearby: None; the next three stops are all within a mile.

More on Wikipedia: Mesa Verde National Park · Pueblo peoples · Cliff dwelling

Sun Point View - A Canyon Full of Neighbors

Stops on this tour