Mesa Verde reopening delayed by snowfall, rockfall, road damage

By The Colorado Springs Gazette January 29, 2019 | updated 8 years ago

FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2005 file photo, visitors tour Cliff Palace, an ancient cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park, Colo. Researchers say they have new evidence that ancestral Pueblo people who disappeared from the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings of southwestern Colorado 700 years ago migrated to what is now New Mexico. DNA from the bones of domesticated turkeys. The turkey DNA shows Native American people in the Rio Grande Valley of northern New Mexico raised and ate the same genetic strain of bird as the Mesa Verde people, and that the turkeys arrived in New Mexico about the same time Mesa Verde was abandoned, the researchers said. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz,File) (BETH J. HARPAZ)

CORTEZ — Officials say it will take some time before Mesa Verde National Park reopens to the public despite President Donald Trump signing a bill that reopens the federal government for three weeks.

The Cortez Journal reports park public information officer Cristy Brown says “several large rock falls occurred on the main park road” during the shutdown, “causing damage to the road and guardrail.”

Brown says “Repairing the road damage and replacing the guardrail, along with substantial snow removal, are necessary to ensure visitor and staff safety prior to the park reopening.”

Brown says the park will reopen at 8:30 a.m. Monday, after repairs are complete and snow from a recent snowstorm is removed.

The visitor and research center at the entrance of the park also will reopen Monday.

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Information from: Cortez Journal, http://www.cortezjournal.com/

FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2005 file photo, visitors tour Cliff Palace, an ancient cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park, Colo. Researchers say they have new evidence that ancestral Pueblo people who disappeared from the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings of southwestern Colorado 700 years ago migrated to what is now New Mexico. DNA from the bones of domesticated turkeys. The turkey DNA shows Native American people in the Rio Grande Valley of northern New Mexico raised and ate the same genetic strain of bird as the Mesa Verde people, and that the turkeys arrived in New Mexico about the same time Mesa Verde was abandoned, the researchers said. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz,File) (BETH J. HARPAZ) — FILE – In this Aug. 27, 2005 file photo, visitors tour Cliff Palace, an ancient cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park, Colo. Researchers say they have new evidence that ancestral Pueblo people who disappeared from the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings of southwestern Colorado 700 years ago migrated to what is now New Mexico. DNA from the bones of domesticated turkeys. The turkey DNA shows Native American people in the Rio Grande Valley of northern New Mexico raised and ate the same genetic strain of bird as the Mesa Verde people, and that the turkeys arrived in New Mexico about the same time Mesa Verde was abandoned, the researchers said. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz,File) (BETH J. HARPAZ)

This August 2012 photo shows Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. Ancestral Puebloans built vast cliff dwellings here starting about 1200 AD and then abandoned them 100 years later. (AP Photo/Margaret Matthews) (Margaret Matthews)

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Mesa Verde reopening delayed by snowfall, rockfall, road damage

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