Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwestern Colorado. Despite being a national park, it has a very different feel to many of the other national parks I’ve visited. While you will find scenic drives and some nice hiking options, the big draw here it to learn more about the Ancestral Pueblo people who once called this area home.
While it is possible to focus on just the nature or just the history of this area, I believe a great visit combines a little bit of both. This variety allows you to put together an amazing list of things to do at Mesa Verde National Park.
Things to Do at Mesa Verde National Park
You have several options for Mesa Verde National Park. Without a doubt, the top thing to do at Mesa Verde National Park is to tour a cliff dwelling. I’ll outline those more later on. Aside from this, you can drive along the scenic drive (you’ll have to do this anyway to get to many of the sights) and do some hiking.
Tour a Cliff Dwelling
In order to visit a cliff dwelling, you’ll need to take a guided tour. While guided tours aren’t always fun, it’s a necessity for safety purposes. It also helps to fill in the gaps, meaning you get to learn just a little bit more during your visit. This is especially great if you’re like me and are terrible at going through the museums and informational materials provided at the Visitor Center.
The other major thing to be aware of it the tours cost extra and are not included in your entry fee to Mesa Verde National Park. Tickets can be purchased online, starting 14 days prior to your tour. Once you know when you’ll be at Mesa Verde National Park, it’s a good idea to purchase your tickets. Tours can and do sell out.
Cliff Palace
This is the most popular tour, and therefore one of the top things to do at Mesa Verde National Park. It’s a 30 minute tour and costs $8 per person. You’ll tour the Cliff Palace, climbing down steps and then back up ladders. Rangers are stationed at the various points along the route to give you more information. So rather than one ranger taking a group of people around, the group of people gets slowly guided from ranger to ranger.
This tour is quick and gives a great overview. I believe that this should be the tour most people should consider doing on their visit. Though I will say, this is the only tour I did during my visit.
Long House
This is the second largest cliff dwelling and is located in a less trafficked area of the park. This tour is longer than Cliff Palace, both in duration and mileage, but for those looking to learn more, this is another option to consider. Tours last 60 minutes and you’ll hike 2.25 miles while descending steps and climbing ladders.
2024 Note: This tour is not currently being offered.
Balcony House
For the most adventurous travelers, consider doing a tour at Balcony House. You’ll climb ladders and squeeze through narrow tunnels. This tour is an hour long and is offered three times per day.
Mug House
This is a strenuous 2.25 mile hike over 90 minutes to see Mud House. This trail is uneven and involves rock scrambling, so you need to make sure you’re ok with that before signing up for this tour.
2024 Note: This tour is not currently being offered.
Square Tower House
This is another strenuous hike, although this one is only one mile. On this tour, you’ll climb to the tallest structure in the park for some amazing views. Like the Mug House, the trail is uneven and does involve rock scrambling. The tour lasts one hour.
Take a Hike
While I believe touring a cliff dwelling is more important than hiking (at this particular park), there are a few hikes that you can check out on your visit. Any hike is a great thing to do at Mesa Verde National Park.
Point Lookout Trail
This was my favorite trail that I hiked, and is therefore one of my top things to do at Mesa Verde National Park. The views were incredible and the crowds were light (note that I started my hike at about 1:00 pm on a very warm day). When I hiked this, I logged 2.2 miles and 554 feet of elevation gain and it took me just over an hour, including all of my stops for photos.
Spruce Tree Dwelling Loop
The Spruce Tree Dwelling is currently closed for tours as they work on preservation efforts, so the only way to see the Spruce Tree Dwelling is to hike this trail. Hiking all the way will give you the best views, but I only walked a small fraction (I ran out of time) and was still able to see the Spruce Tree Dwelling at a distance. This hike is listed as 2.2 miles and 500 feet of elevation change.
Soda Canyon Overlook Trail
This is a short, pretty easy hike that takes you to three viewpoints over the Soda Canyon. I logged 1.3 miles and 100 feet of elevation change over the course of a half hour. The views are nice, but the Point Lookout Trail was better. If you only have time for one hike, do the Point Lookout Trail.
Visit Some Scenic Overlooks
As you drive through the park, you’ll pass numerous pull offs for scenic view points. Many of these are nice, but I had made the mistake of doing the Point Lookout Trail as my first experience in Mesa Verde. In my opinion, this is the best view in the park, so every other view point seemed to pail in comparison.
Still, there are several nice view points and they are worth a stop and make a great thing to do at Mesa Verde. One woman I met could not stop gushing about the Mancos Overlook, so that viewpoint gets an honorable mention.
Drive the Scenic Drive
The main road leads through the park, but there’s some scenic loops you can drive. Depending on your other stops, you may already find these on your itinerary.
Spruce Tree Loop takes you to the trailhead for the Spruce Tree Dwelling.
Cliff Palace Loop takes you to the Cliff Palace, Balcony House, the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail, and several view points.
Mesa Top Loop offers view points and trails. The NPS has also put together an audio guide for this loop. Unfortunately for me, this road was closed during my visit so I have no insight on this area, although it was on my list to visit.
Managing Your Time at Mesa Verde National Park
I found that at Mesa Verde, more than most parks, it was a great idea to really take a look at a map and use it as your planning guide. Sights are incredibly spread out and it’s important that you give yourself enough time to get where you need to go.
So how did I manage my time? I had two half days at Mesa Verde National Park. I drove from Alamosa, spent the night in Cortez, and drove to Montrose after my visit the following day. Here’s what my itinerary, which covers the best things to do at Mesa Verde National Park, looked like.
Day 1
12:00 – Arrive at Mesa Verde National Park
12:30 – Start Point Lookout Trail
1:30 – Finish trail and a break at my car. From here, I worked my way back out of the park, stopping at all of the view points along the way.
2:30 – Arrive back at Visitor Center/Front Gate
3:00 – Check into my hotel in Cortez and get dinner
Day 2
7:00 – Depart Cortez
7:30 – Arrive at Mesa Verde National Park
8:15 – Spruce Tree Loop (partial hike) and Overlook of Spruce Tree Dwelling
9:00 – Cliff Palace Loop/Soda Canyon Overlook Trail
10:30 – Cliff Palace Dwelling Tour
11:00 – Work my way out of the park, stopping at view points
12:30 – Depart Mesa Verde and drive to Montrose
Thoughts On This Itinerary
I absolutely could have done more on my first day at Mesa Verde National Park. The problem is everything else that I wanted to do were at least another half hour drive one way. Plus, I’d have to drive that back, so I’d be adding an hour of driving onto an already driving heavy day.
Additionally, it was hot during my visit, with temperatures hitting nearly 90 degrees, and I didn’t want to be doing a ton of hiking in that heat.
If you are up for it, you could go a bit further without going all the way to the back of the park. You could go as far as the Far View Lodge. There’s a few more view points along the way, as well as additional trails if you’re interested.
A Note on the Altitude
I, like most people, visited Mesa Verde National Park as part of a larger Colorado road trip. This was my second national park of the trip. By this point, I was more acclimated to the altitude, but I still found myself huffing and puffing up some hills as I hiked. I think this is just important to note since Mesa Verde National Park does sit at a higher elevation. The elevation varies throughout the park, but it’s 6,800 feet at its lowest and 8,750 feet at its highest. If you’re coming from sea level (like me!), make sure you give yourself time to adjust before jumping into any difficult hikes.
Getting to Mesa Verde National Park
As I mentioned, Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwestern Colorado. It is west of Durango, but east of Cortez. You’ll find the road to the main entrance just off of Highway 160. Getting here is pretty straightforward. However, what many people fail to account for is the size of the park. Many of the spots you’ll actually want to visit are not located up front near the main entrance. Many of the top sights are located nearly an hour drive away, at the very back of the park.
Getting Around Mesa Verde National Park
To cover the best things to do at Mesa Verde National Park, you need to have a car. If you don’t have one, your only option will be hitchhiking. There are no shuttles and it can take up to an hour to drive from the main entrance to the main sights at the back of the park.
Because of this driving distance, it’s important to plan your time efficiently so you can reduce the amount of time you have to spend driving. I’ll admit that when I first started planning my visit, I could just pop in for a quick peak on my way to Cortez. Depending on where you are headed, this will not be quick. That said, I did manage to figure out a way to efficiently split my visit into two half days.
Where to Stay
I stayed in the town of Cortez, which was only a twenty-five minute drive west of Mesa Verde. The town of Mancos (which is 20 minutes east of Mesa Verde) also has some options. The Far View Lodge does sell rooms and I later found out that it wasn’t much more than what I spent to stay in Cortez. Had I known that in advance, there’s a good chance I would have stayed here just to save on driving time and to allow myself more time in the park.
When to Go
The biggest thing to note is that tours are not offered all year round. If you’re going to visit, I recommend visiting between May and October as that’s when you’ll get a chance to do the tour and see the cliff dwellings up close.
I visited in the first week of September and it was very hot. If you can, I think going a little later in the month would be ideal.
Final Thoughts
Mesa Verde National Park had a nice balance between nature and history. I enjoyed my time here, but I have to admit that there were other national parks in Colorado that I liked more. But if you’re road tripping through Colorado, you should absolutely add Mesa Verde National Park to your itinerary.
You May Also Like
Colorado National Parks: Colorado is home to four national parks. Along with Mesa Verde, you’ll also find Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes, and Rocky Mountain National Parks.
More in Colorado: One of the best things about Colorado is its plethora of scenic drives. Check out my list of favorites.
Colorado Itineraries: For an epic road trip through Colorado, check out this 10 day itinerary. Or if you don’t have ten days, try one of these 5 day Colorado itineraries.