Situated on the Colorado Plateau in southwestern Colorado, Mesa Verde offers a wonderful opportunity to experience a unique cultural and physical landscape. This Traveler's Checklist will help you make the most of exploring this wonderful park.
Sunrise at Park Point, Mesa Verde National Park / Rebecca Latson
* Enjoy the views from the entrance road and Park Point. The 15-mile (24-km) drive from the park entrance to the Far View complex is quite scenic, affording great views from high vantage points. Accessible via a spur road from the main entrance road, Park Point (elevation 8,571 feet / 2,612 m) offers spectacular panoramic views of the Colorado Plateau.Get there early on a clear morning for an amazing sunrise view.
* Stop at the Far View complex, which includes the Far View Visitor Center (the place to get information, directions, and orientation), the Far View Lodge, and Far View Terrace.
* Visit Chapin Mesa. Located on the south edge of the park, Chapin Mesa contains the park's most visited archeological sites as well as the park headquarters, food services (Spruce Tree Terrace), a museum, and two loop drives offering convenient access to a major cluster of ruins, including Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, and Balcony House.
* Take a guided bus tour. From May 1 – October 23, the park concessionaire (ARAMARK) offers the half-day guided 700 Years Tour along the Mesa Loop Road which includes a walking tour of Cliff Palace.
* If driving your own vehicle, check out the various loop drives on Chapin Mesa (Mesa Top Loop Drive, Cliff Palace Loop Drive), where you can visit several publicly accessible archeological sites and as well as scenic overlooks with views of pueblos, towers, prehistoric farming terraces, etc., including views of the renowned Cliff Palace as well as Square Tower House.
* Stop at the Far View Ruins, located along the drive from Far View to Chapin Mesa. The stars of the show in this park may be the cliff dwellings, but there are also ground-level dwellings. This high mesa top (elevation 7,630 feet / 2,325.6 m) was densely populated from about 900 to 1300.
* Tour the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum, which exhibits the chronology of the Ancestral Puebloan culture. In addition to dioramas and the park’s introductory video, there’s a Junior Ranger Station with kid-friendly hands-on activities.
* Take one (or all) of three ranger-guided cliff dwelling tours. For 2024, you can walk through and learn about Cliff Palace (45-minute tour) or Balcony House (1-hour tour). If you feel really adventurous, there’s the Square Tower House ranger-led backcountry tour (90 minutes). Note: some physical exertion is required for all these tours – especially the backcountry tour. You’ll be walking along steep or uneven trails, climbing ladders, even squeezing through tight spaces in the case of Balcony House.
* Visit Wetherill Mesa. (But not in the winter, not on a bike, and never with a vehicle that is over 25 feet / 7.6 m long or weighs more than 8,000 pounds / 3,629 kg). In the summer, spring, and fall, motorists can use the Wetherill Mesa Road to get to an area that has several publicly accessible cliff dwellings, plus towers and other ruins. Note: due to ongoing construction, Wetherill Mesa was closed for 2023 and remains closed for the 2024 season.
* Take a hike, but heed the regulations and limitations imposed by the climate and the need to protect park resources. Most trails are closed in winter. No backcountry camping is permitted, and Mesa Verde management has restricted hiking to the developed areas and certain carefully specified trails.
Peeking through the trees, Mesa Verde National Park / Rebecca Latson
* Enjoy watchable wildlife. Mesa Verde is not renowned as a “wildlife park,” but there is a surprising diversity of life in this habitat and it’s a good idea to bring binoculars or a telephoto lens for your camera. Visitors can expect to see mule deer, wild turkeys, ground squirrels, marmots, rabbits (cottontail or jack), skunks, porcupines, coyotes, gray foxes, elk, rattlesnakes, the distinctive-looking Bailey’s collared lizard, or even (rarely) a black bear or mountain lion. Visitors staying at Far View Lodge or camping in Morefield may hear owls hooting in the night.
If you are a birder, the best viewing is in the spring when migration and nesting are in progress. Among the species inhabiting or passing through Mesa Verde are jays, hummingbirds, warblers, brown creepers, canyon wrens, flycatchers, woodpeckers, flickers, woodpeckers, jays, hawks, ravens, black-billed magpie, chickadees, towhees, grouse, titmice, turkey vultures, peregrine falcons, and golden eagles.
* Go stargazing. In 2021, Mesa Verde was certified as the 100th International Dark Sky Park. There are no large cities in the Four Corners region, so there is very little of the artificial light permeating the sky.
* Winter visitors might find snow conditions suitable for cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Check here for more information on visiting Mesa Verde in the winter and for places to snowshoe and cross-country ski.
