Mesa Verde protects the cliff dwellings, kivas, pit houses, pueblos, masonry towers, and farming structures of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples who lived here for more than 700 years. This park undoubtedly contains the most notable and best preserved dwellings in the United States!
DO:
- Visit. Not only is this a national park but it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest archaeological preserve in the United States.
- Plan to be there between mid-May and September. This is the only time ranger led tour can be booked to see the cliff dwellings up close.
- Research ahead of time to decide which ranger-led tour is your first and second choice. This will help when reserving in advance. As examples, Long House is the second largest dwelling in the park and requires 2.25 miles of walking plus some ladders. Cliff Palace is the most iconic and largest cliff dwelling in the park, with 150 rooms and requires just 1/4 mile of walking with five ladders and 120 steps. Balcony House is one of the most adventurous cliff dwellings to visit. It too is only 1/4 mile but includes a 32 foot ladder and crawling through a tunnel so might not make sense if you fear heights or small spaces! Additionally, they’re working on the roads of the park and some area may be closed.
- Bring binoculars. Many dwellings seen from the roadside are built into the walls across the canyon. It might just look like a ledge or cutout in the rock, but the walls and structures within can easily be seen with binoculars.
- Consider more than 1 day to visit. If all driving loops are open and you’re doing a ranger-led tour, you may want another day to do a self guided tour after hiking to Step House and/ or see some petroglyphs
DON’T
- Expect to see all 600 preserved cliff dwellings. Some 40 pueblos and cliff dwellings are visible from park roads and overlooks.
- Forget to book ranger led dwelling tours 14 days in advance of your visit. Tickets go on sale 14 days before at 8am MST and they go fast so be logged into recreation.gov and ready to go minutes beforehand so you can refresh right at 8am MST. We did not book in advance and did not get to tour.
- Start the drive late, especially if you only have one day. We only went to the Visitor Center and stopped at all stops on the Cliff Palace Road (as Mesa Top Loop was under construction) and it took us about 5 hours the first day. We hiked to the petroglyphs on the second day.
- Forget appropriate footwear, even if just driving to see overlook sites. There are multiple times you’ll need to walk a short distance to the cliff’s edge to see the dwellings.
- Worry if you can’t book a ranger-led tour or don’t want to take a more strenuous hike to see a dwelling up close. We loved the visit and didn’t do a single dwelling tour. We saw a lot of dwellings just from the overlooks and learned a lot as well at each stop.
Hope you enjoy this National Park as much as we did!
