Beginning March 9 you'll be able to reserve your cliff dwelling tour of Mesa Verde National Park online/Kurt Repanshek file
You'll soon be able to book your cliff dwelling tour at Mesa Verde National Park online.
Beginning Monday, March 9, at 8 a.m. Mountain Time, visitors to Mesa Verde can reserve tour tickets online at www.recreation.gov for daily cliff dwelling tours, including Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House.
Tickets for the 2020 season are $7 per person. A limited number of same day tour tickets will be made available online and at tour ticket locations starting at 7:45 am MDT daily.
Tours begin April 12 for Cliff Palace, May 10 for Balcony House, and May 22 for Long House.
Due to limited cellular service throughout the park, visitors purchasing tickets for Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House will be required to pick up hard copy tickets at one of four tickets sales locations (Visitor & Research Center, Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum, Durango Welcome Center, and Morefield Ranger Station) up to one week in advance. Drivers should allow at least one hour to drive from the park entrance to Cliff Palace and Balcony House and at least one hour and 15 minutes to drive to Long House.
When making multiple tour ticket reservations, you should allow at least two hours between tour start times to allow for drive time between tour sites. Visitors may refer to the table of drive times on the park's website for more detailed information.
Comments
The online tour ticket reservation system excites me, yet also is cause for some concern. I am pleased at the integration of technology into the reservation system, which will surely shrink time spent waiting in lines, cars lined up, and therefore, air pollution from the exhaust too. This system has the potential to provide a smoother, quicker entrance into the park, making for a more positive visitor experience. Additionally, this will give employees more time to do more important tasks, as they will not have to spend so much time booking tour tickets in-person.
Contrastingly, what worries me is that this online reservation system could decrease the spontaneity of visiting a national park. What if a family wakes up one morning and suddenly decides to visit Mesa Verde, they arrive, but come to find that all tours have been sold out online. Maybe, some of the reservations never even showed up, so there are empty spaces open, but the family is not able to take the tour because the slot is already taken. The article states that there is limited cell service throughout the park. I wonder how this will work if someone wants to cancel, change, or book, a reservation while inside the park, but are not able to.