Saturday morning, April 28, I woke early to get some shots of a Rocky Mountain sunrise (see my Rocky Mountain post).  Followed by the long drive to the south end of the mesa to the canyons and cliff dwellings. Â
About 1/2 hour from the park entrance, there is a fork in the main road. I took the East fork to Cliff Palace, Balcony House, Oak Tree House, and Hemenway House. These are all ancient cliff dwellings built in to the sides of the canyons that lace the top of this mesa. If you have the time, you can take a tour of some of these dwellings and villages, but alas, we only had a week to tour all these fantastic destinations.
From the hotel in Cortez to Hemenway house is about a one hour drive, non-stop. But, of course you take many stops along the way.  The West fork leads to Step House and Long House, but I had to skip those since those would have added an hour round-trip plus hiking. Because of the great distances, it’s important to plan your trip wisely here.
The Mesa Canyons
There are actually 13 canyons on top of this mesa, each one impressive in it’s own right. Mesa Verde is 8,572 feet above sea level, and rises 2,400 feet above the surrounding planes. Once again, the scale is hard to fathom, but it is 2,000 feet higher than the highest mountain east of the Mississippi, and it’s “prominence” (height above surrounding area) is equal to the highest mountain in Virginia (Mount Rogers).