Spruce House at Mesa Verde

I was recently delighted to travel to Mesa Verde National Park to visit both the Cliff Palace and Spruce House sites. I was taken by both the preservation of the dwellings and the beauty of the natural surroundings. I also really enjoyed the story our park ranger told us about the discovery of the Mesa Verde ruins, by Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law as they searched for some stray cattle in 1888. As I made this painting, I was imagining that experience of two cowboys stumbling upon these ancient dwellings as they rode through the isolated canyons of southwest Colorado.