Mesa Verde is located in Colorado, very near the "Land of Enchantment", New Mexico. Mesa means table or flat surface, and verde means green. It is a collection of prehistoric dwellings built into caves carved into high cliff walls. These caves were probably the result of erosion by natural forces such as wind and rain and, possibly, waves.

In Mesa Verde National Park: The First 100 Years, it says:

"As they moved from the San Juan Mountains, Newberry describes the sight of the 'green slopes and lofty battlements of the Mesa Verde beetling over some high and rockbound coast above the level ocean'" (Houk, Marcovecchio, 9).

There was no level ocean anywhere near Mesa Verde when Mr. Newberry visited. He was speaking metaphorically or possibly saw an ocean in his "mind's eye" as he gazed at it from a distance.

Sixty million years ago, Marshall Mesa Trails, in the relatively arid elevations of Boulder County, Colorado was once an ancient sea that eventually gave way to swamps, ferns, and dinosaurs, so it is possible that Mesa Verde was also once covered by a sea that gradually receded.

The greatest peril to Mesa Verde today is people. The ruins are somewhat delicate. Mesa Verde has been visited by millions of people since it became a state park.

I have visited the park twice, once as a child and once as an adult. Both times, the experience was, well, enchanting. Although the inhabitants of the ruins have been gone for a long time, there is still a strong sense of their presence as you hike the steep trails, climb the rough timber ladders to the upper storage areas and apartments, and peer down into the kivas.

Kivas and pithouses were sacred spaces for the Anasazi, but a visit to Mesa Verde feels like a sacred space in itself.