Photos: Mesa Verde National Park

June 17th, 2005

And now we welcome you to Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park. This is where the pueblo indians used to call home, the "cave dwellers". Unfortunatly, due to the extreme drought conditions much of the pine forest has burned down from several fires. The sight was pretty amazing, they estimated well over 100 years before the forest would regrow to its previous density.

				At the visitor's center, our first stop once we arrived to have some snacks before sunset. Musical accompaniment provided by this indian dude, I think his name was David if I recall. He needed someone to provide some rhythm, he kinda picked me out of the "crowd".
				Who can play two instruments at once? It was interesting, I was trying to keep the beat by watching his toe tap, but somehow he managed to tap to a completely different beat than he was playing to... go figure.
				Looking out from the top of Mesa Verde to the west (duh), at the sunset.
				Ronato & Maria and the sunset. We had the lookout point all to ourselves, nobody else within 1/4 mile at least.
				We had time for two tours, the first one here was the Cliff Palace.
				The canyon like area near Balcony House.
				The view out to the north as we left the park. Only one short day there, it would have been nice to stay a bit longer but travel called.