Mesa Verde has a very special place in my heart. I first visited the park along side my dad when I was six and it was here that I first fell in love with the ruins left behind by the Ancestral Puebloans. That fascination has grown into countless return trips to the Four Corners area and even a couple books co-authored with my dad. Despite the numerous trips to the area, I hadn’t returned to Mesa Verde until this past October, nearly 25 years later.
If you’ve heard of Mesa Verde National Monument, you no doubt think of amazing Cliff Dwellings built into natural alcoves that dot the canyon walls in the park. These iconic cliff dwellings are indeed the main draw for Mesa Verde, however the people who actually lived here had much more humble beginnings.
he details and the relationship between the walls and overgrown grasses and shrubs was my main focus for this image so even though the colors popped quite nicely in the perfect light as well, I converted this one to black and white. That way, the colors couldn’t dominate the details.
Additionally, many scholars theorize that the downfall of the Ancestral Puebloan civilization was accompanied with violent warfare between neighbors fighting over dwindling resources in a drought. A hill top location would have made it much easier to defend and detect incoming threats.
There’s just something pleasing to me about this image. The more I look at it, the more I enjoy the layers within it, the scrub bush in the foreground, the v-shape of the walls, curve of the hill and the brilliant blue cloud filled sky.
All Images, Text and other Media on this site are © Chris Skopec (unless otherwise noted) and may not be used for any purpose without advance permission from Chris Skopec.
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