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In 1906, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado was established through legislation signed by President Roosevelt to preserve and interpret the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Puebloan people who lived there from 600 to 1300 CE. This park conserves almost 5,000 known archeological sites that include 600 cliffs and over 3 million associated artifacts. On the flat tops of the mesas, these Ancestral Pueblo people build spectacular dwellings called pueblos on the overhanging natural cliff alcoves. Yearly, Mesa Verde National Park attracts over 280,000 visitors keen to see the magnificent ruins of these ancient cliff dwellings.
Touring The Cliff Dwellings
While visiting the Mesa Verde National Park, there are two types of tours available ranger-guided tours and ranger-assisted tours. Ranger-guided tours are intimate and in-depth, as visitors are guided in small groups to the park's backcountry to see other lesser visited and seen cliff dwellings. Ranger-assisted tours are timed excursions where visitors tour the cliff dwellings at their own pace and have rangers along the route to facilitate interpretation.
Mesa Verde National Park tickets are in high demand and need to be booked 14 days in advance. To know when tickets are available and their cost and to book them, visitors can visit this website or call 877-444-6777. Tours to these cliff dwellings are strenuous though enlightening. While booking, visitors can ask the management if there is a fee attached to either of the two tour types.
Cliff Dwellings To Tour At Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978 due to the magnificent archeological sites conserved here. These cliff dwellings (pueblos) in the park vary in size; there are one-room granaries to "villages" with over 150 rooms.
They were primarily built of mortar, wooden beams, and sandstone. Of almost the 600 cliff dwellings at the park, 75 percent have 1 to 5 rooms, and many are single-room storage units. The five standout cliff dwellings that attract visitors to Mesa Verde National Park are the following:
Balcony House
This house is a testament to Pueblo Indian's ancestors from Arizona and New Mexico's ingenuity, who built and lived during the 13th century. Balcony House had plazas, 38 rooms, and two kivas (ceremonial chambers) and is believed to have housed up to 30 people. Two natural springs within the alcove and below it served as a water source. The Balcony House tour is a 0.25-mile hike starting by walking down a 130-step metal staircase and climbing up a 9.8 meters ladder to enter and passing through two small ladders and 12 uneven stones.
Visitors then crawl through an 18-inch wide and 12-foot long tunnel to leave the house. There is then a 60-foot climb on an open cliff face with uneven stone steps and two 17 feet ladders to exit. This tour challenges visitors' fear of ladders, tiny spaces, and heights. Balcony House tours are strictly ranger-guided and start from late April to mid-October.
Cliff Palace
Cliff Palace had 150 rooms and 23 kivas, courtyards, and housed about 100 people making it the largest cliff dwelling in North America. At the Cliff Palace overlook, visitors appreciate the monstrosity of this ancient dwelling speculated to have been a social and administrative site for ceremonies. Though Cliff Palace doorways were huge, the Pueblo Indians were of normal average height.
From the late 13th century to the 1880s, the Cliff Palace's gradually deteriorated into ruins and rubble due to weather elements, time, and wildlife. After getting rediscovered in the 1880s, the palace's destruction was accelerated as visitors did unregulated excavations with picks and shovels for treasured artifacts. Cliff Palace tours are strict, ranger-guided too.
Long House
Long House is in Wetherill Mesa, the western portion of Mesa Verde National Park, and has about 150 rooms, 21 kivas, and a row of upper storage rooms. It's believed to have hosted 150 to 175 people. From its observable architectural features, it's assumed Long House was a public place where people from around Wetherill Mesa gathered to trade and have community events that included dancing.
Its formal plaza at the site's core is bigger than that of other villages and has unique features not in other Mesa Verde archeological sites, like benches, vaults, and a raised firebox. The many rooms and kivas and the formal plaza may indicate the Ancestral Pueblo people used it for ceremonial and civic functions. From 1958 to 1963, excavations were carried out at Long House, and it was also stabilized, and routine maintenance is done annually today. Tours to the Long House are strictly ranger-guided too.
Spruce Tree House
Possibly built between 1211 and 1278 CE, the Spruce Tree House is Mesa Verde National Park's third-largest cliff dwelling. It was built by ancestors of the Pueblo people of the Southwest and had 130 rooms and eight kivas built into a natural alcove that at its widest section was 66 meters and 27 meters at its greatest depth. Spruce Tree House was believed to have hosted about 60 to 80 people.
In 1888, ranchers found the house while searching for stray cattle, and it opened for visits in 1908 by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Fewkes removed the collapsed walls and roof debris and stabilized the remaining walls. Today the Spruce Tree House is among the best-preserved cliff dwellings at the park. As a result, 90 percent of the material on walls, wood, and plaster is original. Above this house is a stunning natural sandstone arch. Tours here are self-guided, but visitors need to call the park's management since it can be closed for safety reasons.
Step House
The Step House alcove is unique at Mesa Verde National Park since it sheds light on two civilizations and their occupations, the Basketmaker III pithouse community of 550 to 750 CE, and a Pueblo III masonry cliff dwellings, dating to the 1200s. Since it was built on the south end of a 91-meter-long alcove, a Basketmaker III spot was untouched. Six pithouses here indicate there were inhabitants here six centuries, possibly before the pueblo cliff dwellings were built. The Step House alcove had six Basketmaker III pit structures, Pueblo III masonry dwelling with 27 rooms, and three kivas. It was first excavated in 1891 by scientist Gustaf Nordenskiöld who found artifacts from the Basketmaker III era.
In 1926 Jesse L. Nusbaum, a superintendent of the park, excavated the first of three pithouses and found animal bones and broken pottery. In 1962 a project to conserve the Step House stabilized its structures, and the retaining walls were reconstructed. In the process, three pithouses were found buried underneath the Pueblo III masonry dwelling. Visitors can go on self-guided tours at the Step House.
Other Things To Do At Mesa Verde National Park
As one of Colorado's best national parks, the scenic Mesa Verde National Park has other things for visitors to do besides visiting these ancient cliff dwellings like:
- Biking on trails and roads here.
- Hiking on archeological sites' trails
- Photography and SightSeeing
- Dining at food outlets around the park
- Visit Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum
Mesa Verde National Park Regulations
Unless there is a serious emergency or the winter is severe, Mesa Verde National Park hiking trails do not close, but cliff dwellings can be closed for safety reasons, like falling rocks from the alcove, and opened when experts deem them safe. In ideal conditions, nature trails and ancient picnic sites here are open from 8 am to sunset. The park's visitor and research center is open from 8:30 am to 4 pm, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year days.