Cliff Palace: Mesa Verde National Park

We wanted to tour the famous Cliff Palace on our first trip to Mesa Verde National Park.

We had planned to go to Mesa Verde earlier during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Mesa Verde was closed for some of that time and, even when the general park was opened again, Cliff Palace tours were closed for a while.

As coronavirus became better managed, Cliff Palace tours were not avaiable for a period of time due to construction on the Cliff Palace Loop Road.

Even when Cliff Palace tours became available again, obtaining a ticket to one of these tours was not necessarily a straightforward task. Tickets can be reserved from the recreation.gov site starting two weeks before the day for which tickets are desired and they go really quickly in the summer. However, we were able to reserve tickets for our late September tour of Cliff Palace more easily. Once, we had the Cliff Palace tour reserved, we built the remainder of the road trip to Mesa Verde around that reserved tour.

Because we stayed in the Far View Lodge the night before our full day in Mesa Verde, we were able to get to the Cliff Palace overlook before many other people had even entered the park.

Although we really enjoyed the Cliff Palace tour and recommend it, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the view is of Cliff Palace from the overlook.

The morning sun behind Cliff Palace (from the observation deck perspective) made it more challenging to take photographs.

We had the observation deck for Cliff Palace to ourselves for a while, but the group of participants for the guideded tour started arriving and the platform got quite a bit busier.

Several rangers and park workers were part of the tour. The first provided an overview to us while on the observation deck and then allowed us to start descending the stairs.

There was also a vertical ladder to climb into the Cliff Palace area from the trail.

Seeing Cliff Palace from roughly the same level (rather than from above) provided a different perspective.

Walking up close to Cliff Palace made it easier to see some interesting details that are not as obvious from further away (it didn't hurt that one of the rangers was pointing out these things to us!).

When the Cliff Palace tour ended, we started ascending via stone stairs.

The ascent became more interesting as we climbed through increasingly narrow spaces between huge boulders.

The ascent finishes with two short ladders.

We loved seeing Cliff Palace in the quiet morning before others started arriving and we loved the tour, but we wanted to return in the late afternoon when the sun would be behind us instead of in front of us.

Seeing and walking in front of Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde allowed us to experience something that we've been wanting to see for a long time and it was even more remarkable to see in person than we had anticipated.

Road Trip to Mesa Verde National Park

We've lived in Colorado for many years, but had never visited Mesa Verde National Park in the southwestern corner of our state.

We decided to rectify this by including Mesa Verde as the main motivation for a 4-day, 3-night road trip from the Denver area to Mesa Verde and back to Denver.

We did the most driving on the first day, when we drove from Denver all the way to Far View Lodge located within Mesa Verde National Park.

Our drive from Denver to Mesa Verde National Park was primarily on U.S. Route 285 and U.S. Route 160. Depending on traffic (especially in the Denver metro area), this drive requires 7+ hours with no stops, but we stopped for gas a few times to stretch our legs and enjoyed stopping at Treasure Falls near Pagosa Springs for a quick scenic break.

The view looking the opposite direction from the small Teasure Falls parking lot isn't too bad either.

The drive from Denver to Mesa Verde took us through some towns we saw for the first time just last year during our first southwestern Colorado road trip (such as Fairplay, Buena Vista, Nathrop). We also drove through some towns new to us such as Del Norte, Pagosa Springs, Bayfield, Hesperus, Durango, and Mancos.

It was getting dark as we got closer to Mesa Verde and so we weren't able to appreciate some of the beauty fully until we saw it as we left the area. These photographs were taken at the "Pagosa Country" overlook.

We spent two nights inside of Mesa Verde National Park at Far View Lodge so that we could enjoy a long full day inside the park (we arrived late the first night and left in the morning after the second night). With one full day, we were able to experience a lot in the park and some highlights will be covered in separate blog posts.

We went to Durango after Mesa Verde to ride the train to Cascade Canyon and then drove to Pueblo to for our third night's stay. Pueblo is not quite as far from Mesa Verde and Durango as Colorado Springs is, but still provides a nice base for visiting Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and Paint Mines Interpretive Park.

The drive from Durango to Pueblo allowed us to see beautiful Pagosa country in the daylight and to some more towns for our first time, including South Fork, Monte Vista, Fort Garland, and La Veta.

On the way from Durango to Pueblo, we stopped for a tasty dinner at Juanito's Mexican Restaurant in Alamosa.

Alamosa is a "gateway city" for Great Sand Dunes National Park, the last national park in Colorado we still need to experience for the first time now that we've finally visited Mesa Verde National Park (and experienced Black Canyon of the Gunnison last year).

We spent the third and final night our our road trip in Pueblo at the Best Western Plus Eagleridge Inn & Suites. We enjoyed our stay there and the breakfast included a made-to-order omelet and a yogurt machine with numerous toppings that could be added on top.

We didn't get to see much of Pueblo this time (and it was our first time there as well), but would be happy to stay again at Best Western Plus Eagleridge Inn & Suites and to enjoy the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk, Lake Pueblo, and other things Pueblo has to offer (as well as surrounding areas such as Cripple Creek and more time in Florissant).

Although we loved experiencing ruins in Greece, Italy, and Peru (especially Machu Picchu), but realized that we had some pretty spectacular ruins "in our backyard" and are glad that we finally went and experienced Mesa Verde National Park firsthand.

Other Posts from This Denver/Mesa Verde Road Trip

• Mesa Verde's Cliff Palace
• Mesa Verde's Long House
• Mesa Verde's Far View Sites
• Mesa Verde's Spruce Tree House, Balcony House, and Hemenway House
• More Specific Mesa Verde posts still to come ...
• Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad's Cascade Canyon Express
• Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
• Paint Mines Interpretive Park