Colorado Parkin’ Day 4 – Mesa Verde National Park

May 23, 2023

Time to continue my immersion in Ancestral Puebloan culture and ruins! It was another early morning, par for course of my adventures. I had a 9:30am Cliff Palace tour ticket, and since it can take quite awhile to drive through Mesa Verde National Park, I was up and at them quite early. I packed my coffee to go after scarfing down some oatmeal, and set out towards Cliff Palace, which is nearly twenty miles from the campground.

Of course, I was not driving straight to the parking lot for Cliff Palace! I had a few stops to make, the first being the Park Point Fire Lookout, the highest point in Mesa Verde National Park at 8,572 feet. Always one for standing on high places, it was natural I had to make a stop here!

I made a brief stop at the Geology Overlook, and then continued on past the Far View Lodge. I was doing good on time, so I swung into the Far View Sites. This is a mesa-top community which included a dry reservoir, dispersed homes, and farm fields. Nearly fifty villages have been identified in this rather small area, making it one of the more densely populated areas of Mesa Verde.

At Far View Sites I had a sense overwhelming deja vu come over me, and after my trip my mom confirmed it – I had visited here as a kid! (She had the photos to prove it!) For some reason all I could think the whole time I was here was “I’ve been here, I’ve been here!” Antsy to make sure I got to my tour nice and early (aka my typical 20-30 minutes early style), I race-walked to Coyote Village and Far View Reservoir, snapping quick photos as I hustled.

My hustle was unnecessary, as I made it to the parking lot for Cliff Palace with plenty of time to spare, and got the treat of having to stand around for twenty minutes until my tour started! I met a nice woman who was traveling with her daughter from British Columbia, and we swapped travel stories.

There are a few opportunities to tour the cliff dwellings in Mesa Versa, and tickets can be purchased 14 days in advance (and they go fast!). I originally wanted to tour Balcony House as it is a bit more adventurous, but sadly tours had not started yet for the season during my visit. I decided Cliff Palace which is the largest cliff dwelling, was a good second choice (well, and my only other choice as it was the only one with tours available this early in the season). It was not easy getting a ticket… I miscalculated what day I would be in the park, and missed the day the tickets went on sale, which were sold out when I realized I was a day late. I felt defeated, but I kept checking recreation.gov, and lucked out when a single 9:30am ticket became available on the day I would be there! I snatched it up and marveled at my luck! (So moral of the story, keep checking the website as people change plans and cancel tickets!)

Ranger Tony would be our tour guide for the day on this ranger-led tours (there are also ranger-assisted tours, which are timed entry reservations that allow visitors to move through at their own pace), and I really enjoyed him! He gave us a brief safety talk before leading us down the steep stairs down the cliff, where he checked tickets. The group descended a bit further until finding a place to sit for Ranger Tony’s first educational talk.

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in the park, and contained 150 rooms, 23 kivas, and had a population of about 100 people. Because of its unusual size compared with other cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace was thought to be an administrative site with ceremonial usage. Sandstone, mortar, and wood were the primary construction materials for the cliff dwellings. One thing I find particularly interesting is that the Puebloan people were a lot smaller than we are today, and this explains the smaller doors and openings in the dwellings. They were also adept rock climbers, since reaching farming areas and other communities required scaling the cliffs to the top. There are a few places were you can see the ancient hand and foot holds on the cliffs!

Our hour long tour wrapped up with learning more about kivas, sacred round underground rooms used for ceremonies, gatherings, religious purposes, and celebrations.

After crawling up the steep stone steps and wooden ladder, I emerged from Cliff Palace and ready to continue my adventures. It is actually a crazy climb out of Cliff Palace honestly, even I got a bit winded on the ladders.

I continued along Cliff House Drive, which is one-way, stopping at House of Many Windows and driving on until I got to the Soda Canyon Overlook trailhead. I took this short hike to peep the views and wildflowers.

By now I was starving, so I headed to the big parking lot of Chapin Mesa, and fixed myself a sandwich. On the itinerary would be my longest hike of my whole trip, where I hoped to loop Petroglyph Point Trail with Spruce Canyon Trail for a five mile adventure. First up I swung by the ranger desk at the Chapin Museum for a passport stamp and to turn in my junior ranger book. The ranger noted I had drawn Lone Cone Mountain in my book, and remarked I knew the area. I then let him know my hiking plans. Knowing that he had to give the “safety talk,” he warned me it would be a long hike of over five miles, though “I have a feeling you hike a lot and know what you’re doing if you know about Lone Cone.” He advised that I started with Petroglyph Point Trail counterclockwise, and then see if I was up for Spruce Canyon Trail when I arrived back at the start of this figure-eight loop. This turned out to be amazing advice, as I was originally going to do Spruce Canyon first and the ranger’s advice was much better than my plan.

Petroglyph Point Trail quickly became one of my favorites I have done in a national park as I made my way through narrow slots and over large rocks. Edging along the canyon’s walls, I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of the Puebloans. I am kind of annoyed this hike is not on my “Greatest 100 Hikes of National Parks” scratch off poster to be honest, as it is pretty and really brings the experience of the Puebloan people home as you wander along the cliff.

Reaching the middle of the figure eight I was hiking, I repeated the small section of trail to the Spruce Canyon Trail branch off . By now it was hot hot hot, and Spruce Canyon felt like a slog. However, it was nice to experience the canyon bottom. I couldn’t complain too much… I was just getting unbelievably hot and sweaty which I hated. I ended up draining my entire 3L hydration bladder even!

Back to my air conditioned car, all I could think of was taking a shower and getting out of my clammy clothes, so I made a beeline to the Morefield Campground some twenty miles away for my precious shower. Perks to the pricey campground for sure! Honestly, after such a cool, rainy start to spring, I was just not ready for any temperature over 60 apparently.

After some lounging and dinner, I decided I wanted to return to Park Point Lookout in hopes to get some better photos in softer evening light (it was just so harsh in the morning!). I ended up staying for sunset, which was SO WORTH IT! Seriously, the best spot to catch sunset in the park!

Stats:

• 57 miles driven
• 22,910 steps / 12.7 miles walked
• 1 NPS unit
  • Mesa Verde National Park – $30
  • **I have an annual America the Beautiful Pass, so no entry fees had to be paid
• Fuel stops
  • N/A (I fueled up before entering the park, which is a great idea as gas at Morefield was almost $5/gallon)
• Campsite
  • Morefield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park
    • Site #54
    • $39.97 ($79.94 for two nights)
    • Free showers
    • Bathrooms with running water