Mesa Verde National Park is one of those “Wow!” locations in the West. It’s one of the most unique national parks in the country because it protects the remains of the Ancestral Puebloan civilization, including the cliff dwellings they built over 700 years ago.
Mesa Verde is a perfect one-day park. The thing to do is book two ranger-led tours of the cliff dwellings, then fill in the rest of your day with short walks, scenic overlooks, and other ancient structures. You can end your day with a nice meal and a great view at the Metate Room at the Far View Lodge.
I’m Cheryl, and I love Mesa Verde National Park. It’s a great trip on its own or as part of a larger Colorado or Southwest trip. My husband, Matt, and I spend 70 days a year exploring the West. We write travel guides and make YouTube videos sharing our knowledge of the places we visit so you can have an amazing trip. Without further ado, let’s get exploring Mesa Verde!
This is written for the “first-time visitor,” and I included what you must see to say you’ve done Mesa Verde properly.
It includes two ranger-guided tours that will actually take place within the ancient structures. They will be the highlight of your trip. Reservations are required, and they are available two weeks in advance (as of this writing). You can book them on recreation.gov.
It also includes the scenic drive, some nice viewpoints, short walks, and a visit to the park museum.
The tours are not handicap accessible, but there are many stops throughout the park that are.
This itinerary will work best from early May to late October, though the park is open year-round. I picked this time because this is when the tours are given. It’s important to know that Mesa Verde is hot in the summer. There are few trees and little shade. Plus, heat radiates off the red rocks, so it will feel warmer than the thermometer says.
There is only one entry/exit to the park, and it’s between Cortez and Mancos on Hwy 160. The main
scenic drive climbs a ridge to the top of the park; it’s a pretty drive with interesting views.
Far View. This is a junction with a lodge and a terrace. The Terrace is a cafeteria with grab-and-
go items, such as pizza and sandwiches. The Far View Lodge is tucked away off the main road, and it has two sit-down options:
At the Terrace, you are paying for quick food. At the Metate Room (the lodge), you are paying for the view.
Chapin Mesa. This is 10 minutes from Far View. At Chapin Mesa, you’ll be able to do the two ranger-led tours we recommend, explore the Mesa Top Loop- a drive that has several pit houses and kivas, and see the Spurce Tree house, where there is also a museum and a hike that we recommend. This is the best spot to spend most of your time.
Weatherill Mesa. This is 25 minutes from Far View. It’s much less visited and has one self-guided cliff dwelling and one tour. It’s accessed on a winding road not suitable for RVs. We still haven’t visited this area of the park because we don’t think it’s worth the extra time it takes to get there.
DISCOVER: How to Visit the Four Corners: Perfect 7-Day Itinerary
Mesa Verde National Park is ALL about the ranger-led tours, so let’s start here.
All cliff dwellings except Step House require a ranger-guided tour. We LOVE these tours! Tours run from early May through late October. There are three tours the park almost always offers. Of these, Cliff Palace and Balcony House are easily the most popular because they are close together and easy to fit into a day. Because Long House is located on the more remote Wetherill Mesa, and because the tour is longer, it usually requires another day (unless you’re a real go-getter!).
Reservations for tours are available on recreation.gov, and they open up 14 days in advance, on a rolling daily window. Be online immediately when they open so you can get your desired tour time – remember to sign into your account 10 minutes early so you’ll be ready. We don’t think they usually sell out within minutes, but we also don’t risk it. Try to book your tour times for Cliff Palace and Balcony House two hours apart (example: Cliff Palace at 1:00 pm, Balcony House at 3:00 pm).
These tours are not accessible. They require navigating several stairs, ladders, and sometimes crawling. This makes them extremely enjoyable, IF you can handle it. The park employees can’t tell you that you cannot go, so it’s up to you to know your own limits.
Cliff Palace and Balcony House don’t require much walking, but you’ll be standing the whole time. Having said
all that, don’t be too scared of the tours – if you’re reasonably mobile, we encourage you to do it. It’s
one of our favorite national park experiences!
There are no specific age restrictions for Mesa Verde National Park tours, but children must be able to walk the trails, climb ladders, and negotiate steps independently. Infants must be carried in backpacks, and the adult carrying them must be able to maintain balance and mobility. We actually took our kids on the tour when they were younger, and we each carried a child in our Ergobaby carriers. Our older kids were 6 and 8 years old, and they were able to climb the ladders on their own. They thought it was a great adventure!
-Show up 15 minutes early, because sometimes they do start early!
-Bring water because it’s a dry and hot desert environment. They spend enough
time talking to you about dehydration before the
tours that you might experience it during the talk!
You cannot bring any other liquids or food on the tour.
-There is no cell reception in the park, so print or screenshot your
recreation.gov barcode that’s given when you obtain the reservation,
because you’ll need to show the ranger at the trailhead.
-If you’re concerned about heights, just know that Matt doesn’t love heights
but has not been bothered at all on these tours.
-Bring cash if you want to purchase fry bread on Cliff Palace Loop.
-While not necessary for the tours, make sure to bring binoculars for your visit
to see more dwellings from the viewpoints.
Because the best thing to do in Mesa Verde is the ranger-guided tours, your entire day will work around the times of the tours you were able to get. We recommend booking a tour to both the Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Book as early in the day as possible because it can get very hot in the afternoon. Both tours take one hour each and you will need an hour between the tours to allow time for travel to the starting point of the next tour.
Fill in the rest of your day with short walks, scenic overlooks, and other ancient structures. You’ll spend your entire day in the Chapin Mesa area.
We ordered the stops assuming you get early tour times, but if you didn’t, you can easily adjust what we recommend because all the stops are 10 minutes or less away from each other and the parking doesn’t fill up.
WHEN TO START YOUR DAY: Mesa Verde isn’t the type of park that will fill up to the point where there is nowhere to park your car. What you need to be concerned about is the heat and your tour times. Try to book your tour as early in the morning as possible. You’ll want to arrive at the entrance gate 45 minutes to an hour before your tour time.
I know you are excited to see these amazing cliff dwellings, but they are located deep within the park and it’s at least a 30-minute drive to get to them. Try to enjoy it- it’s really pretty. You’ll drive along the ridge and be able to look into the valley below. You’ll see juniper trees and desert landscapes. There are even a few other types of trees that are really pretty in the fall when their leaves start changing colors.
The scenic drive is a paved, two-way road with lots of switchbacks. Trailers are not allowed on the road past the Morefield Campground, but there is a spot where you can park your trailer for the day.
You will also drive through a tunnel that has a height restriction of 20.5 feet.
ENTERING THE PARK: A fee is required to enter the park. These fees range from ~$15-$30, depending on the type of vehicle you are driving and what time of year you are visiting. Learn more at the national park website.
Cliff Palace is the largest known cliff dwelling in North America. It was built between 1190 and 1280 CE. It has 150 rooms and 23 kivas! There are also many granaries (places where they stored food and weapons).
The structures look almost exactly like they would have 700 years ago, except there would have been roofs on some of the buildings and stones to block some of the doors.
It is believed that about 100 people lived here at a time and that 5 generations used this structure. It was occupied for around 100 years. We aren’t completely sure why they left, but the strongest theory is because of drought.
FUN FACT: Archaeologists still have a lot to learn about the people who lived here and there is a lot of speculation. Depending on the ranger who gives your tour, you may hear a different theory about why the people left and the reason for these structures.
This is the most popular and is a spectacular dwelling. It’s considered the easier of the tours because it doesn’t require scrambling and the ladders aren’t as high. There are plenty of stairs down into the dwelling, and plenty to get out of it.
There are picnic tables, pit toilets, and water spigots here.
WHAT IF I CAN’T DO A TOUR: You can still see a lot of amazing scenery and dwellings. Cliff Palace can be seen from the Mesa Top Loop, as well as the Cliff Palace stop itself (it requires a short, non-accessible walk to the viewpoint). Balcony House can only be seen from the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail (1.2 miles round trip). There are other dwellings you can see from viewpoints or short walks, which we’ll cover below. The canyons are also beautiful, as is the scenic drive through the park. Therefore, we think it’s still worth visiting the park if you don’t do tours.
This is a nice, 5-minute viewpoint on your way to your next stop, Balcony House.
As you leave the Cliff Palace parking lot, you’ll see a stand where Indian fry bread and jewelry are sold. This is my favorite place in the park to get something to eat. Plus, it’s run by Native Americans who live near there. It was delightful to get to talk to them and the fry bread was great.
Make sure to bring cash.
This is another ranger-guided tour and is the more adventurous of the two you are doing. You will scale the face of a cliff via several tall ladders, squeeze your way through a narrow tunnel on your hands and knees, and explore some of the same passages used over 800 years ago! The house isn’t quite as amazing as Cliff Palace, but the tour is more fun due to the scrambling. We carried our kids on this in baby carriers on our backs when we were younger! (I still can’t believe we did that- it was much easier on our last visit when it was just the two of us).
I actually like the small hike at the beginning of this trail. You can hear birds singing and smell the pine trees. Plus, climbing the ladders is really fun.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think they are really clear on what happened to these people. On this tour, our leader said that the topsoil for their farms blew away and that they had hunted out all the big game.
FUN FACT: The people who lived here were tiny! The men were about 5’3 and the women were 5’0. People today have a much harder time fitting through the doorways and windows of these ancient structures.
Because it’s about an hour drive to get back to the gateway towns of Cortez or Mancos, we recommend either packing a picnic or eating within the park.
Even though Mesa Verde is rugged and a lesser-known national park, it actually has a couple of restaurants. There is The Terrace, which is cafeteria style with grab-and-go food like pizza and sandwiches and then the fine dining Metate Room at the lodge that has nice views of the canyon. Both are located at the Far View area of the park, about 10 minutes away from Chapin Mesa, where you are spending most of your time.
We tried the cafeteria at The Terrace. Our food wasn’t gross, but it wasn’t good either. It cost us ~$26 for pizza and drinks. In the future, we’ll be packing a picnic.
Let’s head back to the Chapin Mesa area for some more sightseeing. Mesa Verde doesn’t just have cliff dwellings; it also has pit houses, which were built earlier. There are quite a few you can visit and each stop has something unique about it, though feel free to skip a few of them.
It usually takes us about an hour to explore this whole loop, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you want to take more time. There are plaques to read and lots of stops. Just know that, unlike the ranger-led tours, you will be looking at these structures behind a rope, not climbing into them.
GOOD TO KNOW: If your tours are later in the day, it’s actually nice to do the Mesa Loop first for a couple of reasons. 1) You see the ancient structures in the order they were built. Pit houses were here before cliff dwellings. 2) Once you see the cliff dwellings, they aren’t nearly as cool.
This used to be the best self-guided ruin in the park, but it has been closed since 2016 because of a rockfall and park rangers now feel it is unstable. We hope that it will open again someday. In the meantime, you can see it from a viewpoint. There is even a trail that goes near it, but walking through it is prohibited.
There is also the Archaeological Museum here. It’s super old; built in 1922. It’s made out of the same sandstone that was used to create the cliff dwellings. An orientation film is shown every half hour, providing an overview of the history of Mesa Verde. The museum is currently undergoing a multi-year renovation to update the exhibits and accessibility.
Admittedly, this museum has been closed every time I’ve been there. It seems like the buildings close fairly early (often around 4 pm), but I’ve peeked in the windows. It looks pretty small. Hopefully, when the renovation is complete, it will be worth a stop.
There is also a museum store, water, restrooms, a cafe, and a gift shop, all located here.
Petroglyph Point Trail is the most popular hike in the park and departs from the museum. It circles around the Spruce Tree House. It takes around 1.5 hrs and is a moderate, 2.7 miles round trip. We haven’t done this hike yet because we are usually focused on the cliff dwellings; there are lots of places to see petroglyphs in the West. But this may be worth your time if you petroglyphs are your thing or if you won’t have the opportunity to see them on another trip.
Dining at the Metate Room
This isn’t a must-do, but if you enjoy fine dining with a nice view, you may enjoy this. We haven’t eaten here, but we did stop by and check it out. We’ve also eaten in several dining rooms across the national parks, so I’ll do my best to help you know if this will be worth it for you.
First, it’s a beautiful dining room with really great views. We’ve always had wonderful service and a nice experience.
Meals cost between ~$30-$50 and they specialize in typical steakhouse fare (ribs, steak, salmon, trout, pasta) with a unique offering of Succotash, which is a mixture of squash, beans, rice, herbs, and pepitas. Although we have had some food that is pretty good in the dining rooms, we always feel it is overpriced and can get a higher quality meal in the gateway towns. You are paying for the view and the dining room.
Reservations aren’t required but are highly recommended. Learn more about dining in the Metate Room here.
Viewing the Stars
In 2021, Mesa Verde became the world’s 100th International Dark Sky Park! This means it’s a great place to see stars. Every Wednesday night (late May through early October), you can join the rangers at the Morefield Campground Amphitheater for a 30-minute program. They will point out stars with a laser pointer and have telescopes available. Learn more about this here.
Although we love ranger-led star programs, sometimes it’s easier to view the stars on your own schedule. The areas around Far View Lodge also have some good spots to view stars. Even if you just use a pullout on your way out of the park, you’ll be amazed at how many more stars you can see when you get away from the lights of the city.
Wetherill Mesa
This section of the park has fewer crowds because it’s farther, and typically requires an additional day for the Long House tour, or doing Long House instead of the other two popular tours. The winding 12-mile road (not suitable for RVs over 25 ft long) ends at a large parking area, where there used to be a tram that would take visitors around a 5-mile loop to different stops. The tram hasn’t operated since 2015, and now the road is only open to walking or biking. This means that the vast majority of visitors will only see the self-guided Step House, because anything else will require hiking or biking on the road, which is now falling into disrepair. This is why Long House is a longer tour – because you have to hike on the road just to reach it (where in the past, you could ride the tram to it). If you have bikes, you might consider biking this loop, but check road conditions first.
GOOD TO KNOW: Wetherill Mesa reopened in 2025 after a multi-year renovation project. We’ve been
unable to visit this to do first-hand research.
There are five main sites to see. The first four are cliff dwellings:
When to Start Your Day: As early as you are comfortable waking up. The park gets hot, so an early start will have nicer temperatures. Make sure to enter the park
at least 45 minutes before your first tour of the day
What to Wear: Comfortable and sturdy shoes, a hat, sunglasses, and cool, comfortable clothes. Possibly wear a long-sleeved sunshirt to protect against sunburns
What to Bring: A water bottle and binoculars. Bring a picnic lunch if you prefer
not to eat at the restaurants within the park.
Check out our recommended gear for what we use.
Road Conditions: The roads are paved and drivable in a regular car,
but there are RV restrictions
Cell Phone Service: Don’t count on having good reception here.
Download maps before your trip
Don’t Bring Your Doggo: Only trained service animals are allowed within buildings and on trails. Leashed dogs are allowed in the campground and picnic areas.
The campground does have a kennel.
We’ve talked about food a few times in the itinerary, but here are my top choices.
Get the Indian fry bread as you leave the Cliff Palace parking area. It’s yummy and unique to the area. I’d skip all the other restaurants unless you are going to reserve a special dinner at the Metate Room at the lodge. I’m planning on eating here next time I visit because I think it would be really nice.
As far as outside of the park, Durango is 45 minutes away and has no shortage of great places to eat, including Rupert’s Durango (awesome breakfast!) or the Diamond Belle Saloon (piano playing and employees wear old-time saloon attire).
The towns of Mancos and Cortez are closest and there are places to stay there, but…my top pick is Durango because I think it’s a town you should visit if you are in the area. Not only is it a cool old west town, but it is home to my favorite train ride of all time, the Durango-Silverton Train (and I’ve been on at least 10 train rides). You can read my full review of it if you are interested. If you don’t want to read my review, take my word for it and just take the train ride. It’s amazing.
Mesa Verde does have the fairly large Morefield Campground that has 267 sites. The max RV length is 46 feet. All the sites have picnic tables and firepits. They also have a camp store, laundry, showers, dump station, and amphitheater where ranger programs are given. Learn more and book your site on their website.
There is only one entry/exit to the park, and it’s between Cortez and Mancos on Hwy 160. To get to our favorite area of the park, Chapin Mesa, it’s another 30 minutes from the entrance gate.
Yes! Mesa Verde is just one of many awesome things you can do in Colorado! There are three other national parks (Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Great Sand Dunes).
But, there is so much more than just the national parks. The Southwest area of Colorado is filled with amazing sites, beautiful drives, and cool mountain towns.
Thanks so much for letting me geek out on one of my favorite national parks in the West. I hope you make it there really soon.
This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. We are compensated for referring traffic and business to Amazon and other companies linked to on this site.
