Access to Spruce Tree House, the best preserved cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde, is year-round. (NPS Photo)Mesa Verde Travel Planner
Mesa Verde, Spanish for "green table", offers an unparalleled opportunity to see and experience a unique cultural and physical landscape. The culture represented at Mesa Verde reflects more than 700 years of history. From approximately A.D. 600 through A.D. 1300 people lived and flourished in communities throughout the area, eventually building elaborate stone villages in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Today most people call these sheltered villages "cliff dwellings". The cliff dwellings represent the last 75 to 100 years of occupation at Mesa Verde. In the late 1200s within the span of one or two generations, they left their homes and moved away.
To fully enjoy Mesa Verde National Park, plan to spend a day or two exploring itsThe archeological sites found in Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. Mesa Verde National Park offers visitors a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people. Scientists study the ancient dwellings of Mesa Verde, in part, by making comparisons between the Ancestral Pueblo people and their contemporary indigenous descendants who still live in the Southwest today. world-class archeological sites as well as its beautiful landscape. The entrance to the park is 9 miles east of Cortez and 35 miles west of Durango in Southwestern Colorado on US Highway 160.

Lodging and Activities near
Mesa Verde:
Cortez
Durango

Closest Major Airport: Durango (DRO)


Official Park Site


Printable Information Sheet


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Twenty-four Native American tribes in the southwest have an ancestral affiliation with the sites at Mesa Verde.
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