Mesa Verde: the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans

Mesa Verde is a high plateau cut by canyons, in south-west Colorado. In the alcoves of the cliffs, people built entire villages of stone: towers, multi-storey houses, round sunken chambers. They left them more than seven centuries ago. The park has about 600 of them.

History and origins

The Ancestral Puebloans settled on the plateau around the year 550. For six centuries they lived on top, in villages among their fields of maize. Around 1190 they began building beneath the overhangs of the cliffs. They stayed there only a century. By about 1300, everyone had left for the south, probably driven out by a long drought. Their descendants are the Hopi, the Zuni and the Pueblo peoples of New Mexico.

In December 1888, two cowboys looking for stray cattle caught sight of Cliff Palace through the snow. The news attracted the curious and the looters. The park was created in 1906 to put a stop to it. It’s the first US national park devoted to a work of human hands, and it’s a World Heritage Site.

What to do there

• Cliff Palace: the largest cliff dwelling in North America, with about 150 rooms. You see it from an overlook, and go down into it with a ranger.
• Balcony House: the most athletic tour. You climb a ten-metre ladder and crawl through a tunnel to get in and out, as the inhabitants did.
• Spruce Tree House: one of the best-preserved villages. It has been closed since 2015, because of rockfalls, but you see it very well from the museum.
• The Mesa Top Loop Road: a 10 km loop, with short stops at the oldest villages on the plateau and views of the cliffs opposite.
• Wetherill Mesa: a quieter area, open in summer. Long House is visited with a ranger, and Step House on your own.
• The museum: pottery, basketry, sandals, and models that tell the story of life on the plateau.

Stories and good to know

• The round sunken chambers are called kivas. They were used for ceremonies and meetings. The Pueblo peoples still build them.
• The term is now “Ancestral Puebloans”, and no longer “Anasazi”: that Navajo word means “ancient enemies”.
• Several major wildfires have swept the plateau since 2000. They revealed hundreds of unknown sites.

Practical information for your road trip

• Pass: the America the Beautiful pass covers the entrance fee. Everything is explained in our guide to the national parks pass.
• Getting there: the park entrance is 15 minutes from Cortez and 45 minutes from Durango. From there, it takes another 45 minutes to reach the villages.
• Time: with the access road, allow a whole day. Get your tour ticket before you drive up.
• Fuel and food: a petrol station and a café in summer, in the middle of the park. Fill up in Cortez.
• Where to stay: at the park lodge, in season, or in Cortez and Durango.
• Combine it with: Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly and Moab, all less than three hours away.