Cliff Palance cliff dwelling tour, Mesa Verde National Park, CO

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/22/2024	0.5 miles	1 hour 25 minutes	148'	1.2 mph	354.1 miles

Parking: 

• Fees & Passes - Mesa Verde National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
• There is a fee. The National Park Service annual pass will work here.
• Cliff Palace

Map:

• Gai GPS app
• Maps - Mesa Verde National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Directions: This is a paid tour.

I hovered over my laptop on the exact date/time when the cliff dwelling tour reservations would open for our trip. One was easy to get. One was much harder to get, but I got both tours that were available. 

Last night was very cold in my tent :(  I think it was because it was windy. I had my -20 degree bag, puffy jacket, puffy pants, hat, neck gaiter, hot water bottle, and hand warmers. I'm just not meant to tent when its 36 degrees (colder with the wind chill). Once the sun came up it warmed up quickly.

We went on the first cliff tour of the day. This was great, because it meant it was easier to get photos with no one in the cliff dwellings before we reached them. The cliff dwellings are amazing. Our park ranger guide was excellent. We had a class of 5th graders on our tour from Aspen. Their teacher had thoroughly prepped them for the visit. They had been studying the cliff dwellings in school. The kids asked really intelligent and interesting questions. They were curious about what they saw. I was so impressed by them! This morning's tour was mostly walking right next to the cliff dwellings. In our afternoon tour we get to walk in them.

Good morning!

Amazing!

The wood beams are original.

Fire pit and deflector in the center of the kiva

The park has hundreds of cliff dwellings. You start to train your eyes to find them.