The nearly empty parking lot of the Mesa Verde visitor center was changing from dark gray to white as a heavy round of hail rolled through on an early May morning. With half a day to spend at this southwest Colorado gem, I couldn't afford to waste time waiting in my car for the storm to pass. I jumped out and ran through the barrage of ice pellets into the safety of the building. Face still stinging, I walked up to the desk and purchased a ticket for the earliest ranger-led tour of Balcony House, billed as "the most adventurous" of the tours offered of the park's famous cliff dwellings.

Working my way along the park's main road that winds up to the top of the mesa, I felt as if I was leaving one world and entering another. The hail increased in intensity and was coating the road like snow, so I pulled off at a lookout instead of continuing up the switchbacks. The burst soon subsided and revealed a beautiful vista. I stepped out of my car, breathed in the cool, moist air and watched blankets of fog rolling over Montezuma Valley and creeping up the mesa.

The photographer in me hoped that at some point in the day the clouds would break and give way to brilliant rays of sunshine that would light up the sky and splash the mesa walls with color. That never happened. I was hailed on two more times before I left. For the duration of my visit, the canyons, cliffs, trees and shrubs were shrouded in gloom and intermittent spurts of precipitation. This inhospitable weather didn't dampen my experience, but further added to the mystique of a land whose timeless appeal is undeniable.

Under the ledge

My introduction to Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings wasn't a glimpse from a distance but a close encounter. It's a 25-mile drive from the visitor center up to the Balcony House parking area atop Chapin Mesa. After gathering at the staging area with the my fellow tour-takers and listening to the park ranger give a brief overview of what we were about to experience, we marched toward the edge of the cliff.

We were forewarned by the visitor guide and the ranger that the Balcony House tour was not recommended for people with heart or respiratory problems, and also not for those terrified of heights or tight spaces. The hike requires climbing up three wooden ladders and crawling on your hands and knees into an 18-inch wide opening through a 12-foot long tunnel. Those prospects didn't deter our brave band of 20-some misfits, which included children as young as four and two couples in their 80s.

We started the hike by filing along a paved path and down metal stairways that were built in the 1930s until we were walking on a ledge 100 feet below the mesa top. We then climbed side by side up a wide 32-foot tall wooden ladder and squeezed through a tight, dark passageway that ushered us out among the ancient structures of the Balcony House alcove.

Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings date back to the 1190s when the area's Ancestral Puebloan inhabitants moved from the mesa top, where they had lived and farmed for the previous 600 years, to beneath overhanging cliffs in the canyon walls. The motive for this move is still not fully understood by archaeologists. There are 600 cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde constructed mostly of sandstone, mortar and wooden beams. They were all abandoned by the 1280s — after less than a century of use — when the population migrated south to present-day New Mexico and Arizona, likely because of a series of severe droughts. What's left behind is one of the most expansive and well-preserved archaeological sites in North America.

As the ranger talked about the builders of Balcony House and its construction, I used my imagination to replace the other hikers — wearing colorful jackets and hydration backpacks and carrying digital cameras — with Ancient Puebloans climbing in and around the alcove and the 40 rooms of Balcony House, just going about their daily lives. I saw a few of them caught in a daydream, staring off across Soda Canyon to the flicker of lightning strikes on the opposite side. Then I gazed across the expanse and got locked in a state of awe, envious of the people who were able to wake up to this view every morning.

The Balcony House cliff dwelling is divided into two main sections, the North Plaza and Kiva Plaza, and consists of 40 rooms and two kivas, or round sunken chambers used for spiritual ceremonies. Balcony House is named after a small balcony of a two-story structure that is the first main structure you see when you enter the alcove. Juniper beams were used for the ceiling separating the first and second stories. They jut out from the canyon-facing wall and were used to create a narrow balcony inhabitants used to traverse from room to room on the second story. Growth rings in the wood have allowed archaeologists to pinpoint the dates the structures were constructed.

Many of the structures' windows doubled as small doorways the inhabitants used to crawl in and out of the rooms, which had an average size of 6 feet by 8 feet. You can peek inside and see into the small rooms, many of which have blackened ceilings from fires used for warmth and cooking. The Ancient Puebloans were smaller than modern man, though about the same size as Europeans of the same time period. The average height of a woman was little more than 5 feet tall and the average man stood about 5 feet 4 inches.

A Mesa Verde park ranger tells a tour group about the history of the Balcony House cliff dwelling.

A couple from France peer down into a Balcony House kiva as storm clouds darken the skies over Soda Canyon.

Hikers on the Balcony House tour walk through the Kiva Plaza section of the cliff dwelling.

A woman from France takes photos of Soda Canyon from the Balcony House cliff dwelling.

Two men on the Balcony House tour lag behind to take photos of the North Plaza section of the cliff dwelling.

Hikers on the Balcony House tour look at the different rooms of the ancient cliff dwelling, which is more than 700 years old.

Hikers end their tour by climbing up from Balcony House along a cliff face overlooking Soda Canyon.

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While there are rules discouraging visitors from touching or leaning on the structures of Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings, it doesn't diminish the immersive experience of touring these incredible ruins. Dating back to the early 1900s, archaeologists realized the importance of having visitors be able to physically reach the cliff dwellings and walk among the ruins so they would gain an understanding of the historical and cultural value of these places and support their preservation. Ruins stabilization efforts have been in the works for the last century to detect structural weaknesses and repair deterioration caused by weather, animals, looters and park visitors before the problems lead to a collapse.

Exiting Balcony House is one of the biggest thrills of the entire tour. After crawling through an 18-inch wide, 12-foot long tunnel, you ascend one final wooden ladder and then use footholds carved into the cliff face to make it the rest of the way. There's only a chain railing and a flimsy wire fence between you and a fall off the edge to the canyon floor. It's totally safe, but I could understand how people who have issues with heights could struggle with the final stretch of the tour.

If you are physically able to do a tour of a cliff dwelling, do it. These structures are hundreds of years older than the earliest buildings erected by European settlers in America. They're like ancient penthouses, except instead of overlooking urban sprawl they sit atop a gorgeous canyon. Along with Balcony House, tours are available for Cliff Palace (the largest cliff dwelling in North America with 150 rooms) and Long House (nearly the same size as Cliff Palace) for $5. Spruce Tree House, the third largest and best-preserved cliff dwelling, was closed to tours in 2015 due to rock falls. Step House, located on the Wetherill Mesa on the west side of the park, is the only cliff dwelling visitors can explore for free on a self-guided tour. The tours open in either April or May and close around September.

Meandering the mesa top

After ducking through passageways and climbing up ladders in Balcony House, I walked to my car and tried to see as much of the park as I could before setting off for Utah and searching for a camping spot near Canyonlands. Mesa Verde's 600 cliff dwellings make up just a portion of the more than 6,000 archaeological sites within the park (they are definitely the coolest portion, though). Along with being one of 59 national parks in America, Mesa Verde is one of 23 places in the United States that's been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its cultural and historical significance.

My first stop after Balcony House was the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail. About a quarter mile down a 1.2-mile trail, light hail started to fall and lightning became more frequent on the opposite side of the canyon. I picked up my pace and made it to the overlook to view Balcony House from a distance through the hail as another tour group was protected from the elements under the alcove. Though the wooden ladders could become slick, it would cool to be under the Balcony House alcove during a storm and watch the rain pouring over the overhanging cliff.

The light hail storm passed and I continued on to Mesa Top Loop. There are many areas to pull off and take a short walk to view clusters of pit houses and kivas, many of which have had buildings erected over them to aid in their preservation. There are also phenomenal views of Navajo Canyon and Cliff Canyon.

Square Tower House is one of the park's most notable cliff dwellings due to its four-story tower — the tallest structure in Mesa Verde at 28 feet high. About 60 rooms remain from the original 80. The dwelling used to sprawl outward in descending tiers. With the collapse of the outer tiers, the remaining tower looks even more impressive. Much work has been done to stabilize what's left of Square Tower House, but 90 percent of what is visible today is original. That includes portions of two wooden kiva roofs, a rarity since most kiva roofs have deteriorated.

There are frequent stops along Mesa Top Loop to view pit houses and villages. They're not as aesthetically interesting as the cliff dwellings but the Ancient Puebloans inhabited these structures for a much longer time period and many continued occupying them while their neighbors moved down into the cliff alcoves. While it's helpful to take some time to explore these sites and read about their history to get a better understanding of life on the mesa top, if you're pressed for time, I'd stick to trying to see as many cliff dwellings as possible and maybe hit just a couple pit houses and mesa top ruins.

Working my way towards the end of the loop, I stopped at Cliff Palace View to check out the park's largest cliff dwelling from a distance since guided tours were not running for Cliff Palace or Long House until later in the season. I came across a man from Memphis named Larry Hughes who was standing alone bundled up with a hood over his head and an easel in front of him. It wasn't the greatest morning for painting outside, but he had a good reason for being out there.

During a brief chat, I learned Larry was in the middle of a two-week stay at Mesa Verde as part of the National Park Service's Artist-in-Residence program. There are more than 50 residency programs across the U.S. and they're open to professional visual artists, writers, musicians and those who work with other creative media. Residencies typically last two to four weeks and allow a unique opportunity for artists to capture the beauty of these natural places in their own unique way. This was the fourth straight year Larry, who paints with watercolors, has applied for and been granted a residency at a national park. He was at Guadalupe Mountains (Texas) in 2014, Petrified Forest (Arizona) in 2015 and Zion (Utah) in 2016. (You can check out some of his work here.)

The Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum and Spruce Tree House were my last two stops before starting my three-hour drive up to Canyonlands. The museum contains dioramas depicting the Ancestral Puebloans' way of life at Mesa Verde and displays of ancient artifacts such as tools and pottery used by these early inhabitants.

Directly behind the museum is wonderful view Spruce Tree House, which is indefinitely closed to tours as the cliff dwelling undergoes a hazard assessment following a rock fall in 2015. Even from a distance, Spruce Tree House is impressive. Not only is it huge, sporting 130 rooms, it's also remarkably preserved with many roofs and walls still intact. While I was looking at the dwelling, a group of four surveyors were directly above the alcove on the rocky mesa top, with one repelling down to inspect the overhang for unstable areas that could produce more rock falls. Sights like this are common around Mesa Verde as crews work to ensure the preservation of the structures and the safety of visitors.

While naturally beautiful in its own right, Mesa Verde is the only national park I've visited that's as much about the people as the place. It's encouraging that such care has been taken to try to preserve and understand the fascinating history of the Ancient Puebloans who lived here. While our modern buildings quickly deteriorate when neglected, their cliff dwellings are still surprisingly intact more than 700 years after they were abandoned — a testament to their exceptional building skills and craftsmanship.

Still under cloud cover and some light sprinkles, I drove down from the mesa top and out of the park thinking about how much I'd left unseen and promising myself I'd return.