Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Mesa Verde [Colorado] National Park

Automobiles.Secure automobile permit, fee $1 per car. Speed limit 35 miles per hour on entrance highway, 20 miles per hour in headquarters area and on ruin roads. Drive carefully; free wheeling is prohibited within the park. Grounds.Burn all combustible rubbish before leaving your camp. Do not throw papers, cans, or other refuse on the ground or over the canyon rim. Use the incinerators which are placed for this purpose. Trees, Flowers, and Animals.Do not carve initials upon or pull the bark from any logs or trees. Flowers may not be picked unless written permission is obtained from the superintendent or park naturalist. Do not harm or frighten any of the wild animals or birds within the park. We wish to protect them for your enjoyment. The mesa verde, or green mesa, so-called because its juniper and pion trees give it a verdant tone, is 15 miles long by 8 miles wide. Rising abruptly from the valley on the north side, its top slopes gradually southward to the high cliffs bordering the canyon of the Mancos River on the south. Into this valley open a number of large high-walled canyons through which occasionally, in times of heavy rain, raging torrents of water flow into the Mancos. In the shelter of the caves that have been eroded in the sides of these canyons are some of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in America, built many centuries ago by a tribe of peace-loving Indians who prized the security offered by the almost inaccessible caves. In order to preserve these cliff dwellings Mesa Verde National Park was created, but they are not the only attractions in the area. In the winter the park is closed to travel by deep snow, but in the early spring the blanket of snow is replaced by a mantle of flowers that change with the seasons, and to the story of the prehistoric inhabitants is added an absorbing story of nature that is peculiar to this mesa and canyon country. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 35936
Author: United States. Department of the Interior
Release Date: Apr 22, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English