Mesa Verde National Park topographic map

Click on the map to display elevation.

About this map

Name: Mesa Verde National Park topographic map, elevation, terrain.

Location: Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma County, Colorado, 81330, United States (37.15642 -108.55471 37.35053 -108.33960)

Average elevation: 7,044 ft

Minimum elevation: 5,932 ft

Maximum elevation: 8,566 ft

The early Archaic people living near Mesa Verde utilized the atlatl and harvested a wider variety of plants and animals than the Paleo-Indians had while retaining their primarily nomadic lifestyle. They inhabited the outlying areas of the Mesa Verde region, but also the mountains, mesa tops, and canyons, where they created rock shelters and rock art, and left evidence of animal processing and chert knapping. Environmental stability during the period drove population expansion and migration. Major warming and drying from 5000 to 2500 might have led middle Archaic people to seek the cooler climate of Mesa Verde, whose higher elevation brought increased snowpack that, when coupled with spring rains, provided relatively plentiful amounts of water.

Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA 3.0)