Although we planned our trip to Mesa Verde National Park primarily to tour Cliff Palace and to then to tour Long House, we were also able to view both the Spruce Tree House and Balcony House.
The trailhead for Spruce Tree House is located near the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum and one can park in the same spot for both.
We could not walk the entire Spruce Tree House trail because it was closed (since 2015 and still is closed as of this writing), but we were able to see it fairly clearly from the overlooks and trail.
The Balcony House is on the same road as Cliff Palace and is just a few minutes drive away.
We did not book a tour of the Balcony House because we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to tour both Cliff Palace and Long House. Although you cannot get a good view of Balcony House from its parking lot without going on the tour, there is a good vantage point a little further down the road at the Balcony House overlook.
As shown in the next couple of photographs, the view of Balcony House from its overlook is better if one has binoculars or can zoom in with a camera.
Given that there is no overlook for Long House, we were happy with our decision to book the Long House tour at the expense of not being able to do the Balcony House tour.
Although Cliff Palace and Balcony House are arguably the best known sites on the Cliff Palace Loop Road, there are other stops along this same loop road:
- Cliff Canyon Overlook
- House of Many Windows Overlook
- Hemenway House Overlook
- Soda Canyon Overlook Trail
You can see Hemenway House if you look carefully in the top right corner of the next photograph (click on image to enlarge and look in top right corner where red arrow is pointing).
Although we were not able to tour Spruce Tree House, Balcony House, or Hemenway House, we did enjoy seeing them from overlooks and the path.
No comments:
Post a Comment