Mesa Verde National Park – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado - Atlas Obscura
Just Released! The second edition of our bestselling book.
What's near me?

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Mesa Verde National Park

The ancient dwellings of the Puebloans, carved into the cliffs of majestic mesas. 

Spruce Tree House - March 2010
The Cliff Palace in 1891.
The Round Tower as captured by Ansel Adams, 1941.
An exposed kiva at Spruce Tree House. Typically this structure would be covered.
Spruce Tree House
Mesa Verde in late winter 2010
Spruce Tree House - March 2010
View of Mesa Verde Gary Arndt (Atlas Obscura User)
Pictographs along the Petroglyph Trail. CorpseLady84 (Atlas Obscura User)
Inside of an open Kiva David Crane - www.dcranephoto.com
Rock stack, Mesa Verde nature hike. Dayne (Atlas Obscura User)
Light streaming down into the Kiva at Mesa Verde Dayne (Atlas Obscura User)
Kiva ladder David Crane - <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dcranephoto.com"></a>

Known for the dwellings of the people who archaeologists once called the “Anasazi,” (a derisive Navajo term meaning “ancient enemy”) Mesa Verde National Park in Montezuma County, Colorado, is home to some of the world’s most beautiful sandstone and adobe structures.

The twelfth and thirteenth-century rectangular homes – and circular, subterranean religious structures (“kivas”) – of the Pueblo peoples include the famous “Cliff Palace,” a maze of twenty three ceremonial kivas and dozens of rooms. These pink, yellow, and red-plastered dwellings are shut behind windowless walls, under a great overhanging cliff. They are architectonic, squeezing dark rooms together to make an easily defensible fort that uses the cliffs’ natural curves as a guide.

We don’t know much today about the people who built the storybook towers of Mesa Verde (which means “green tablelands”). There appear to be two different styles and sizes of kiva, so there may have been two distinct periods of building, guided by different groups of religious elites. The total effect is stunning, and to people accustomed to separated homes and cities laid out on a grid, under an open sky, quite surprising.

For some reason, these dwellings were inhabited for only a century or so before some sort of disaster struck. Likely theories include a “mega-drought” that made life in the arid mesa-lands unsustainable. Rather than disappearing into thin air, it’s now that thought that the early Puebloan peoples migrated south, into Arizona and New Mexico, where they continued to refine their building practices and where their descendants live today.

Unfortunately, much of these amazing abandoned structures have been looted or destroyed by curio-seekers and vandals. What’s left owes much of its existence to a family of forward-thinking ranchers called the Wetherills, who had a good relationship with local Native Americans and gave outsiders responsible tours. President Teddy Roosevelt tried to protect the Park lands in 1906. In addition, photographer Ansel Adams documented the ruins in the 1940s, producing a series of powerful black-and-white images of the towers and walls.

Know Before You Go

The nearest airports are Cortez, Colorado, Durango, Colorado, and Farmington, New Mexico.CarMesa Verde National Park is in Southwestern Colorado. The Mesa Verde Headquarters is a 10 minute drive from Cortez, Colorado, heading east on Highway 160 to the park turnoff, and a 1.5 hour drive from Durango, Colorado, heading west on Highway 160 to the park turnoff.Public TransportationThe closest bus terminal is located in Durango, Colorado. Car rental is needed to get from the bus terminal to the park. The entrance to Mesa Verde is 35 miles from Durango.Getting AroundA vehicle is needed to see Mesa Verde.The first view of a cliff dwelling is 21 miles (approximately 45 minutes) past the entrance station along a steep, narrow, winding road. From there, you can choose to take hikes of varying degrees of difficulty, or drive a loop track that shows the cliff dwellings. Tours: Arrive early in the morning (park opens at 7:30am) to schedule yourself into a tour of one of the dwellings. The tour requires average strength and being OK with heights (you climb a long ladder) and small spaces (you crawl through various doorways and passages). You can't book this tour over the phone, and you have to stop at the initial visitor center at the park entrance to get a scheduled slot. From there, you have a 45 minute drive to the tour's beginning slot, so don't arrive at 9:30 and expect to be on the 10 tour! Spots fill up fast, so arrive early and expect to be booked into an afternoon tour.There are also self-guided tour options, including the Petroglyph Trail. This trail is about 2.5 miles and can be very strenuous for inexperienced hikers. But you will be rewarded with amazing views as well as ancient pictographs carved into the wall along the path (about 1.7 miles in). It is well worth the hike, but be sure to bring plenty of water!Most of the park is not dog-friendly, so leave your pup at home. Also, entree for a car is $20 ($15 for motorcycles and $10 for walkers and cyclists). There are several other related national park service sites within driving distance which are thematically similar to Mesa Verde: Hovenweep, Yucca House, and Aztec National Monuments.

Visit Colorado with Atlas Obscura Trips

Dinos and Dunes in the Colorado Desert

Venture with us into the Colorado desert to unearth the mysteries of the prehistoric beasts that once roamed this very same ground.

Learn More »
national parkseccentric homesincredible ruins
Community Discussion
Near This Place
Dolores, Colorado

Canyons of the Ancients

A breathtaking array of ancient Pueblo structures and artifacts counterintuitively preserved by neglect.
Teec Nos Pos, Utah

Four Corners Monument

The marker offers a rare chance to be in four U.S. states at once, though there's some controversy over its geographic accuracy.
Added by mightyquinn
Durango, Colorado

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

This spectacular track has run continuously since 1882.
Added by syabek
Shiprock, New Mexico

Shiprock

Legends surround this jagged rock formation in the New Mexico desert.
amboy Added by amboy
Related Places
Coolidge, Arizona

Casa Grande Ruins

Some of the tallest ancient American ruins continue to inspire awe and curiosity.
barnumbrownie Added by barnumbrownie
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Longfellow House

One of America's most historic homes also holds a startling literary legacy.
Dustin Stonecipher Added by Dustin Stonecipher
Caracas, Venezuela

Tower of David

The world's tallest slum.
Allison Added by Allison
Syosset, New York

Ruins of King Zog's Estate

An abandoned Gold Coast-era mansion once intended for the exiled ruler of Albania, who never arrived.
Leslie McIntyre Added by Leslie McIntyre