Some unique opportunities to celebrate the summer solstice will be offered in the region Monday.

Mesa Verde National Park will offer a backcountry sunrise tour of the Balcony House site to highlight the archaeoastronomy features of the ancestral Puebloan dwelling, said Jeff Brown, interpreter at the national park.

This backcountry tour will start at 5:15 a.m. and is projected to last an hour and a half, with an additional tour being offered Tuesday, Brown said. The tours will be unique because the group will include two videographers from the National Park Service who will film the event.

“Depnding on how the footage turns out, we will be able to bring this celebration and this great event to the public’s enjoyment through Facebook and YouTube,” he said.

This is the first year such tours have been offered, and they are part of the ongoing centennial celebration of the Park Service, said Eric Andersen, operations supervisor for interpretation at Mesa Verde.

Astronomical events such as the summer solstice were of great importance to the ancient inhabitants of the Southwest, Brown said. “The importance of these astrological events within Mesa Verde are definitely tied and woven into the culture of the Native Americans.”

The summer solstice, specifically, is connected with cultural rituals that were believed to call for warmer weather to aid in the growing of crops, according to modern descendants of the ancestral Puebloans, he said.

In addition to next week’s sunrise tours, Mesa Verde will offer two tours in September to celebrate the autumnal equinox and one in October to mark the close of the season, Andersen said. Tickets are required for the tours.

Center for Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College will open to the public at 6 a.m. Monday to watch the image cast by a solar window designed by Denver artist Scott Parsons, said Shelby Tisdale, director of the center.

This window, which was created through the Colorado Art in Public Places program, is designed to capture the sun rays during the solstice and the days surrounding it and cast a spiral image that progresses down the wall as the sun rises, Tisdale said. “It’s designed in a spiral, which is very significant to the kinds of rock art you see in this area.”

This window provides an opportunity to recognize the importance of the solstice to Native American communities, she said. “When Scott Parsons designed this window, it really was in tribute to the solstice markers of the ancestral Puebloans of southwestern Colorado.”

Tisdale said following the annual event, members will receive a sneak peak of an upcoming exhibit on the National Park Service, “Parks, People, Preservation: Celebrating the National Park Service in the Southwest.”

Luke Perkins is a full-time student at Fort Lewis College and a intern at The Durango Herald. He can be reached at Lukep@durangoherald.com