Tucked in the south-western corner of Colorado, Mesa Verde has a way of reminding its visitors that natives inhabited these lands with customs and cultures vastly different from our modern practices. Not for the faint of heart, the guided tour that cuts through this old civilization requires that explorers climb several tall ladders.

To this day, researchers still cannot figure out why the entire civilization just up-and-disappeared, with no clues as to why.

What was especially neat about this spot was its proximity to the four corners . . . where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. You can stand in four places at once. Even more interesting than that  . . . experiencing the walk through the craft stalls where Native American arts and crafts were sold. It’s neat to see parts of the culture that have survived hundreds of years. I’d recommend driving through some of the Native American reservations in this area too. The drive will open your eyes to some of the truths of the ugly history of the U.S. and it will also show you real victims of some uncontrollable circumstances. A lasting impression for me were some of the impoverished conditions that I saw school children going home to as they got off of their school bus in the afternoon.