One look at the iconic cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, and it’s easy to imagine the lives that once bustled within them. In a free audio tour visitors can download ...

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK — The corncob impression ... when people lived in these dwellings perched in the cliffs of what is now southern Colorado. Of course an Ancestral Puebloan mother wouldn ...

Virginia McClurg, a well-known writer, poet, and lecturer, took up the cause of protecting Mesa Verde's treasures. She formed the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association, whose members were all women ...

In December 1888, Colorado cowboys discovered a remarkable archaeological site at Mesa Verde, revealing a silent city of stone built by a peaceful Indian civilization centuries before Columbus.

The Mesa is on the western side of Mesa Verde National Park, about 30 minutes from the road fork (near Far View Terrace Gift ...

But the mysterious inhabitants of these cliff dwellings didn’t stay long. Sometime around A.D. 1300, the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the alcoves for reasons unknown, and Mesa Verde was deserted.

In contrast to the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde or the small canyon homes nearby, Hovenweep has many spectacular free-standing structures, most reachable via an easy trail from the park entrance.

Visitors tour the dwellings at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park on July 12, 2017. (Photo by Joe Amon/The Denver Post) How Colorado’s Hillary Allen overcame near-death fall to cement ...