Mesa Verde National Park Pictures & Maps

WillhiteWeb - Colorado Travel

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

Mesa Verde is one of the National Parks everyone should visit. Unlike the other big ones like Yosemite and Yellowstone, Mesa Verde is a combination of man made attraction and unique natural beauty. The Mesa is scattered with cliff dwellings, like visiting a civilization on another world. Their lifestyle was so unique and interesting you are fascinated with each new sight you see. This is a National Park that can't be rushed. Expect a full day here. To see any of the 3 biggest dwellings, you must purchase tickets and wait until tour time. Between tours, you can see all the self-guided attractions. Because of travel times around the park and the slow nature of the ranger guided tours, it's difficult to get it all in one day.

Mesa Verde's largest cliff dwelling, the one-hour ranger-guided tour involves climbing five 10 foot ladders, on a 100 foot vertical climb. Total walking distance is about 1/4 mile, round trip.

This one-hour, ranger-guided tour involves climbing a 32 foot ladder, crawling through a 12 foot long tunnel, and climbing up a 60 foot open rock face with two 10 foot ladders to exit the site.

Point Lookout & road inside the park in route from Durango

Starting with a tram ride to and from the trailhead, this 90-minute, ranger-guided tour involves climbing two 15 foot ladders within the site. The round trip hike is 3/4 mile, with a 130 foot gain in elevation upon exiting.

The best preserved cliff dwelling, access by a 100 foot decent and ascent on a winding path. Total walking distance is 1/2 mile round trip. Trail begins at the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum.

Park Point Lookout - Highest point in Mesa Verde, a drive up summit!

Mesa Verde National Park was created in 1906 to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Puebloans, both atop the mesas and in the cliff dwellings below. The park includes over 4,500 archeological sites; only 600 are cliff dwellings.

Spruce Tree House dwelling

Cliff Palace ladders

Park Point Lookout - Highest point in Mesa Verde

Views from Park Point Lookout

Views over Mesa Verde from Park Point Lookout

Kids have been playing here for hundreds of years

Below: Part of the national park map...where the good stuff is.