Driving on the entrance road to Mesa Verde National Park I enjoyed the autumn colours, but I also couldn’t look away from the many dead trees. They have been affected by massive fires over the last years, and also are under attack by beetles.

I had booked a two-night stay in the park’s Far View Lodge to have enough time in the park, and that proved to be a good choice. As my room wasn’t ready yet, I started sightseeing immediately. Closest to the entrance lie the Chapin Museum and Spruce Tree House. I watched the video at the museum about the origins of Mesa Verde, and the questions that still surround it (why did the people choose to move to cliff dwellings?).

Spruce Tree House is one of the best-preserved dwellings. It’s just a 15-minute walk down from the museum. Although it’s late in the afternoon there are still about 50 other visitors. All rooms are covered by huge overhanging rocks. About 100 people lived here at the time (13th century). It’s cramped, but you notice that the place keeps really cool while the sun is burning on the lands around and above it.

The next morning I make it an early start. The first stop is the House with the Many Windows. This is situated on the other side of the canyon and looks like an apartment building (with its many windows – that are actually doors).

A bit further on, I meet a group of deer that aren’t scared of cars at all and take their time to cross the street. Squirrels and turkeys are also common sights in the park.

At the Far View Sites, two buses full of schoolchildren were unloaded just as I arrived, but fortunately I could avoid them a little (they were kept quiet also by a loud talking but enthusiastic park ranger). These Far View Sites date from about the same period as the rock dwellings, but are built on the earth. That way they look a lot like those at Chaco Canyon, where I was earlier this trip, and like modern-day Pueblos like Taos. The inhabitants of the Far View Sites also probably have constructed an artificial water reservoir (Mummy Lake), which you can visit too (it’s now dry).

For the rest of the day, I buy tickets for the guided tours to Cliff Palace and Balcony House. These two large complexes cannot be visited on your own.

The Cliff Palace tour is led by a park ranger, who warns us beforehand (just like they did at the ticket office) how strenuous the walk will be. The distance in total however is less than a kilometer. Already from the top, there’s a great view of Cliff Palace. This is the largest building in Mesa Verde, consisting of 171 rooms and with both square and circular towers. It’s like a small village. People could only survive here because there’s access to water. They grew their crops on top of the mesa. The tour lets you get up and close with the building and includes long (but interesting) explanatory talks by the ranger.

The Balcony Tour later that day attracted a lot fewer participants than the one earlier: probably many were deterred by the 32 feet (10 meters) high ladder you have to climb, or don’t fit through the small tunnel you have to pass crawling. All this extra fuss just makes it more fun to go of course. Balcony House can’t be seen from the trail above. You first have to walk down a path until you are below the rocks. There you find the ladder, a sturdy one fortunately. Balcony House is built like a fortress, unlike the other houses in this area. Besides the climbs, there were also small tunnels to make wannabe attackers vulnerable when their heads would pop out. On the tour, we only have to crawl through one on our hands and knees. You do get a lot of respect for the designers of the house: from nothing else than a hollow rock they’ve made a liveable plateau with multi-story houses and kiva's, underground ceremonial chambers.