Mesa Verde National Park

On Sunday, we headed to Mesa Verde National Park. One of the best drives of the whole trip was through northeastern Arizona which is mostly Navajo reservation. Those pictures are on my phone so I'll have to include those later.  In Spanish, Mesa Verde means "green table". 

Mesa Verde is the ancestral home of the Anasazi or "ancient ones" in the Navajo tongue. It was established as a national park in 1906. It protects some of the best preserved pueblo dwellings in the United States. Mesa Verde means "green table" in Spanish and it is called this due to its high elevation.

 The Anasazi lived in this area for roughly 700 years from 500 A.D. to 1200 A.D.

We hiked down to one of the dwellings called "Spruce Tree House".

The was an archaeology museum near Spruce Tree House. Here Abigail is looking at examples of jewelry that archaeologists have found.

This site is called "Cliff Palace. It has over 150 rooms. It requires a private tour so we had to take pictures from above.

We had a great meal in the food court at Mesa Verde. It wasn't crowded, the food was good and we had a great view.

Abigail and I have found a new favorite food- the Navajo Taco. Beans, lettuce, salsa and chiles piled on top of Navajo fry bread. Yum.