Page 9 - Volume 15 Number 8

ends, plus a legacy VOR approach and a modern GPS LPV approach to Runway 21. The LPV minimums are quite low for a mountain airport, with published minimums of 302 feet AGL. While the VOR and LNAV approaches to 21 keep you reasonably clear of the immediate area’s highest terrain, the LNAV to 03 and LPV to 21 are forced to contend with the terrain more creatively. Both thread the needle between the nearly 10,000-foot Sleeping Ute Mountain and the high mesas that encompass much of MVNP (on the inbound segments for the LNAV 03 approach and the missed approach segment for the LPV 21). The runway’s 7,205-foot length should prove adequate for all but the most extreme conditions, with proper management of aircraft weight and performance. Once safely landed and parked at CEZ, the wonders of Mesa Verde are mere minutes of driving time away.
While Mesa Verde is most famous for its some 600 ancient cliff dwellings, the park protects over 5,000 sites of ancient archaeological, historical and social significance. Mesa Verde is not only a U.S. National Park but also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. American Indians are known to have inhabited the area within MVNP as early as 9,500 to 7,500 BCE. Around 1,000 BCE, Archaic Mesa Verdeans developed permanent settlements, incorporating pit houses, the remains of which can be viewed at MVNP today. The Ancestral
Puebloans began constructing the area’s first pueblos between 600 to 650 CE While they steadily improved their culture’s farming, housing and food storage technology, they also battled droughts, depopulation, migrations and warring settlements. After a severe drought in the early 12th century, much of the population left their traditional mesa-top dwellings and began constructing and living in cliff dwellings below the mesa tops. These hard-to-reach dwellings helped grow larger and tighter- knit communities in the area by offering protection from both weather and enemies while also consolidating the population and locating them closer to valley water sources. The Ancestral Puebloans constructed and lived within these now-famous dwellings for around 100 years before migrating elsewhere due to decades of severe drought and especially harsh winters. Yet, since their rediscovery between 1873 and 1885, they have captured and held the imagination of millions who struggle to imagine how ancient people managed to build and survive within villages clinging to jagged cliff faces.
Mesa Verde is one of those places you can endlessly read about yet fail to fully appreciate it until you’ve seen it firsthand and walked among its sites. From CEZ, follow Highway 160 northeast for five minutes, into and through Cortez. Another 10 minutes east of town and you’ll arrive at the MVNP Visitor & Research Center.
AUGUST 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 7