Cliff Dwellings of the Southwest

Above, Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

For some ideas on places to visit during future summer vacations, a visit to the Southwest U.S. to see ancient cliff dwellings is one that should be considered.

Travel Awaits has an article featuring "5 amazing cliff dwellings to explore." Some are in national parks, others are preserved in tribal reservations.

They begin with:

Cliff dwellings, many protected as part of the U.S. National Park System, are ancient homes built in recesses of cliffs and canyon walls. They are prevalent in the Southwest, yet they’re found nowhere else in the U.S. The high deserts here are home to gorgeous canyons and stand-alone sandstone cliffs. Peppered by crevices of all shapes and sizes, these sandstone walls offered the perfect environment for cliff dwellings.

But the ingenuity of the ancient people of the high desert made the crevices inhabitable. Depending on the size of the recesses, they built single homes, neighborhoods, even large villages, sometimes housing over a hundred people. Where possible, they dug further into the cliff recesses for larger establishments.

The resulting buildings were sometimes several stories high, with strong roofs between stories made of wood and plaster. Their inhabitants accessed the rooms by ladders through openings from the rooftops, or through small doorways from neighboring rooms. In larger crevices, they also constructed kivas, circular ceremonial centers.

The National Park Service incorporated many of these cliff dwellings to protect them while also allowing us to visit and enjoy them. My family and I visited them often, and over time, we found a few we keep returning to. The following are some of our favorites.

 To read more, go here.