Info/Tip
Book ranger led cliff tours: summer 2021, Ranger tours can be booked two weeks in advance, check NPS site for any update to tours. Tours sell out quickly (within minutes), be ready to book when they go on sale for the date you want.
Mesa Top loop has audio tour available to download and listen to when you drive the mesa top loop.
In summer 2021 there are road construction in Mesa Verde National Park, when we went Cliff Palace Loop Road was closed for construction, Cliff palace could be viewed from Sun Temple on the Mesa Top Loop Road.
The drive from visitor center/entrance gate to Mesa Top Loop is around 40 minutes and to Wetherill Mesa is around 1 hour. If you have tour tickets factor in driving time to tour meeting point.
Things to do
Ranger led cliff Tour
Check ranger led tours that are available and book early. We were able to get the Long House and Square House tour.
A little side story – the ticket for long house tour for the date we planned to visit went on sale the same day as our daughter’s middle school graduation. So during the graduation ceremony both of us set a timer for 9:55am (ticket go on sale at 10am EDT/8am MDT) and were able to book the ticket for the tour on our cell phones during graduation. Thankfully it was towards the end of the graduation and our daughters name was already called so we didn’t miss anything.
Long House Ranger Tour
Long house is the second largest cliff drilling. The ranger tour is about 60 minutes with a 2.25 miles hike. There are two ladders and you can go behind the long house drillings
Square House Ranger Tour
Square House tour was limited to 10 people per day, so very lucky to got this tour ticket. The tour is 90 mins long and involves a 1 mile round trip hike including going down two ladders. We enjoyed this tour more than the long house tour probably because of the smaller group size.
Mesa Top Loop
Mesa Top Loop is a 6 miles drive with stops of 700 years of Mesa Verde history. Cliff Palace loop was closed for construction during our visit, Cliff palace could be viewed from Mesa Top Loop by Sun Temple.
Far view site complex
Far view site complex includes Far view house, coyote village, other villages and a reservoir. Shout out to Park Volunteer Bob. We met Bob on our morning square house tour and when we ran into him again at far view site he offered us a private walking tour. This ended up being our favorite and most educational tour at Mesa Verde. Thank you Bob!
Step House self guided tour
Step house was the only cliff drilling opened to public without tour reservation required, check open hours. When we were there the trail to Step house closes at 3:30pm. We got to the trailhead a little after 3:30pm after our long house tour and the trail was closed so we were not able to visit this site.
Stargazing
We stayed one night inside Mesa Verde at Far View Lodge. We could see the milky way from our balcony window but it was still too much light so we drove out into the park for some very nice view of the milky way. Pictures taken with Canon EOS RP with aperture f/4, ISO 6400, 20 – 30 seconds, no post processing.
milky way from far view lodge balcony 
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