Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park (1906) - also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1978), located in the far southwestern corner of Colorado. This park was created to protect and preserved mesa and cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home from A.D. 550 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. Geologic formations in the park consist largely of sandstones and shales. Four major plant communities are located here - at the lowest elevation is the shrub-steppe community that includes sagebrush valleys, then as you gain elevation, you move through pinyon-juniper forests, to mountain shrub communities, and finally to areas of Douglas-fir and Ponderosa pine.

From the North Rim, across The Knife Edge and Point Lookout - down and across the Montezuma Valley - Mesa Verde National Park (1906) - also a UNESCO, World Heritage Site "Cultural" (1978). Mesa Verde translates to "Green Table" from the Spanish language.

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From the North Rim, across The Knife Edge and Point Lookout - down and across the Montezuma Valley - Mesa Verde National Park (1906) - also a UNESCO, World Heritage Site "Cultural" (1978). Mesa Verde translates to "Green Table" from the Spanish language.

$Spruce Tree House - in the alcove shadow, below the Chapin Mesa - Mesa Verde National Park, established in 1906 to "preserve the works of man", the first national park of its kind. An alcove is formed when water seeps into cracks of the sandstone, freezing and thawing in them, eventually expanding and slowly pushing the rock apart, known as cryofracturing or ice wedging. These portions fall off in blocks, creating the alcoves you now see. These blocks of fallen sandstone were shaped and used by the Ancestral Puebloans in the construction of their dwellings.$

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Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park