Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado, might just be the coolest National Park we’ve visited yet.

“Borrowed” from their website:  Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

It was fascinating to learn about the people, see some of the artifacts, and actually tour a cliff house.

In addition to all of this archaeology (note the correct spelling), we saw some pretty cool critters too.