All the Southwest States contain countless ancient remains and Native American sites, but by far the most famous locations are found on the Colorado Plateau of northeast Arizona, southeast Utah, southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico.
The Southwestern Deserts seem like the worst place on the continent to settle: hot in summer, cold in winter, and incredibly dry. But, in reality, several Ancient Tribes set up remarkably sophisticated civilizations here.
They developed the large scale social organizations needed to build large scale irrigation works, plus remarkable stone settlements.
Remnants now cover the region and are reminders of ancient humanity as well as natives who continue to live as their ancestors did. The Ancient Puebloans (Anasazi) were a prehistoric Native American civilization centered around present day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States. They were the ancestors of the modern Pueblo peoples, including the Hopi and Zuni puebloans.
Our trip focused own two of these ancient civilizations, Mesa Verde in Southwest Colorado and Santa Fe and Taos in Northwest New Mexico. The video in this blog covers Mesa Verde. Our next blog will include the Santa Fe and Taos video.
One of my favorite National Parks! Great video! Brings back memories! Thanks for sharing.