Mesa Verde Colorado 360 VR Travel Guide
360 Video of Mesa Verde and Balcony House, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
For more information and our Travel Guide to Mesa Verde, please visit: www.experiencethis360.com
Over 700 years in the making, Mesa Verde is one of our favorite National Parks and one of the most unique destinations in the State of Colorado offering history, adventure and beauty like none other. On June 29, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established Mesa Verde National Park to "preserve the works of man," the first national park of its kind. Today, the continued preservation of both cultural and natural resources is what keeps this treasure alive.
Mesa Verde has over 4,700 archaeological sites including 600 cliff dwellings and the mesa top sites of pithouses, pueblos, masonry towers, and farming structures, with many more yet to be revealed. These sites are some of the most notable and best-preserved dwellings in the United States.
Mesa Verde National Park offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished in this region, eventually building elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Then, in the late A.D. 1200s, in the span of a generation or two, they left their homes and moved away.
The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best-preserved ruins in the North American continent. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century. By the late 1270s, the population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona. By 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended.
Mesa Verde is a discovery of wonder and it is a very popular destination in South West Colorado and we hope this destination guide will inspire you to visit, but also give you some tips on enjoying your stay.
Mesa Verde National Park is famous for the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings constructed within its cliff alcoves. A trip to Mesa Verde would not be complete without a visit to one of these culturally significant sites. While the park is always open, many services and tours have seasonal dates of operation. Lodging, dining and tours all operate on their own schedule and we will provide further details at the end of this destination guide.
There is so much to do and see in Mesa Verde National Park, we don't want you to miss out on anything! Whether you stay in a comfortable guest room in Far View Lodge, or camp in your personal RV or tent in Morefield Campground, or simply go for a drive along its scenic parkway you will be sure to have a memorable experience. The views are spectacular, historic and simply unforgettable.
Tour of Mesa Verde's Cliff Dwelling
It is important to either purchase tickets a day ahead of time at the park or online or very early in the morning. Tours sell out very fast and a lot of tourists didn't even know the only way to see the major sites at Mesa Verde is with a park ranger guide. And the best part of your experience to Mesa Verde will be on one of these guided tours. You will not only be well educated and entertained, you will experience Mesa Verde up-close and personal when you descend down into one of the many cliff dwellings. When you first get to the park entrance you will need to pay for admission. It is only between $15 to $25 per vehicle, depending on the season. This will allow you to travel the 40 miles of roadway, hike, and experience the upper portions of the park which include a museum. Once inside the first thing you want to do if you have not done so already is book your tour. We chose to visit Balcony House, a medium sized cliff dwelling that was the most adventurous. Within 15 minutes of arrival most of the tours throughout the day were already booked with popular ones like Cliff Palace sold out immediately. Our tour was for 11am and we had plenty of time to drive leisurely to all the mesa top sites and enjoy the on site museum. We also managed to squeeze in a mini hike along a cliff top trail before arriving in the designated meeting point for the Balcony House Tour.
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