The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL, September twelfth, mounting Mesa Verde.

When it was set aside in 1906, Mesa Verde was America's first National Park established to preserve the relics of prehistoric man. That was wise. Though the setting and scenery of these high dry table lands in Colorado's southwest corner are starkly beautiful, architectural relics of ancient travelers are what attracts modern travelers.

Relatively little is known about the Stone Age Amerindians who moved to these mesas about 500 A.D. The nomadic hunters became dryland farmers, hacking small fields from the jumble of pinyon and juniper on the mesa tops. Their early dwellings were pits roofed with clay covered brush. Communal clusters formed around circular ceremonial centers called Kivas. Gradually, using only wood and stone tools, they began to build complex structures of native rock.

Around 1200, these ancients moved into clefts in the mesas' cliffsides, where seep water produced protected pools. Over the next century, they constructed the dozens of cliff dwellings for which Mesa Verde is famous. Then, after suffering decades of drought and perhaps wild fires similar to the ones which raged here last summer, they all moved away, leaving their well-protected dwellings to the ages.

Some Mesa Verde antiquities are viewed from a distance, but most are wide open for personal explorations and discovery. That means climbing steep steps and ladders in heat and altitude, so carry lots of water. While the fires did incinerate large tracts of foliage, all that has made Mesa Verde special is completely intact. Most visitors arrive in summer, but spring and fall are better seasons to see it.

FMI For information on Mesa Verde Park: 970-529-4465 or www.nps.gov/meve

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