5.0Cliff Palace(1.475 reviews) - 30 Min Tour to History Historic Sites • Ancient Ruins
An ancient cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park.See more..
5.0Balcony House(867 reviews) - Rigorous but very doable if you are over 65. Historic Sites • Ancient Ruins
There is some uneven terrain, ladders and a short crawl but not overly difficult. The crawl area is short but narrow so someone extremely wide in the hips would not make it thru. Both my knees are replaced and I had no difficulty walking or crawling. If you plan to do this tour get onto the reservation site at 8am MT 14 days before you planned date. Our ranger guide Rachel was fantastic. We had her the day before as well for the long house tour. See more..
4.5Hovenweep National Monument(700 reviews) - Smaller than Chaco Canyon, but no less impressive Spent 2-3 hours Ancient Ruins • National Parks • Monuments & Statues
Located in Utah but near Cortez, this site has six ruin sites all built around 1200 AD. Hovenweep is 42 miles from Cortez, CO and approximately 48 from Blanding, UTSee more..
4.5Spruce Tree House(600 reviews) - View from the Overlook Ancient Ruins
This site has been closed for many years now for safety reasons, but can easily be viewed from the overlook behind the museum building. The site is said to be the best preserved cliff dwelling in the park and the third largest. It’s worth the time to go view it, especially if your on the Cliff Palace loop already.See more..
The most remote of the pueblo ruins in the Four Corners areaSee more..
5.0Long House(292 reviews) - Make Sure you Book a Tour Ancient Ruins
For $8 per person, you can book a tour to view Long House. To do so, you have to go to the recreation.gov website 14 days prior and tickets go on sale at 8 am. Long House Tour tickets are relatively easy to get as opposed to other tours which allows less people. Still, I would get tickets as early as possible because it does sell out. We also booked Square Tower House which only allows 10 people a day. For Long House, there were probably around 20 - 25 people in our group. Also, tours are not year round. Mesa Verde closes in winter months. For Long House, tickets are sold according to time slot. There are morning slots and afternoon slots. We had 1:30 pm reservations. They let you in exactly at 1:30 pm. There were 3 rangers there stationed at spots giving explanations. You do have to hike approximately 1 mile to get to the entry point. The hike can be hot and there is no shade. Once you are at the entry point, there is another .5 mi one way to get to Long House. You climb up a total of 2 ladders. You should allow 60 minutes for the Long House visit and 2 hours for the entire experience because there is the 2 mile (roundtrip) to the starting point. Earlier in the day, we did Square Tower House and it was more intimate so we thought Long House was just OK. If you manage to get tickets for Square Tower, I would skip Long House. Also, Step House is completely free and you can visit without reservations and there are rangers stationed there as well. We did Step House and it was enjoyable and easier to get to without all the walking.See more..
The cliff dwellings at the Ute Mt. Tribal Park are a true find. See Ute wall paintings and petroglyphs as they were, and take your time: this secluded site gets far less visitors than Mesa Verde.See more..
4.5Far View Sites(53 reviews) - Include this self guided stop Spent 1-2 hours Ancient Ruins • Points of Interest & Landmarks • Historic Walking Areas
My husband and I are so glad we stopped here and took the time to walk the entire site. It let us see both ruins on the Mesa and ruins in the cliffs. Walking close to the walls and peering into the rooms allowed our imaginations to open up and guess what they would be used for.See more..
Have been here several times and just learned Mesa Verde (who administers this unit of the NPS) will be offering several ranger-led tours of Yucca House each week this summer! You can ask at Mesa Verde for a site bulletin with directions to Yucca House (the road to the monument crosses private lands and so is the parking area on private land) and they have a National Parks Passport Stamp too. Once you get directions you can go to the site, respecting the landowners you'll pass on your way there. Once at the site park off the road and walk a short distance to the gate. Write your name in the register, open and close the gate behind you. Enjoy walking around the site. This isn't developed, so no access for wheelchairs, strollers, etc. You'll find pottery sherds on the ground. Please don't take them: that act is illegal (Antiquities Act of 1906) and they should be left where you find them. Watch for snakes!See more..
4.5Canyon Pintado(12 reviews) - Ancient rock art in NW Colorado Monday: 12:00 AM - 11:59 PM Spent More than 3 hours Ancient Ruins
I didn't spend a lot of time looking at the rock art only because we were in a hurry to be in Wyoming for the solar eclipse. However, they have a nice interpretive area within the only rest stop between I-70 and Rangely, CO, so besides stopping to stretch your legs and use the facilities, spend some time reading the educational signs there. The other review details quite well the journey to get there. The road over Douglas Pass has numerous switchbacks and steep grades, and there is a lot of heavy truck traffic from the oil fields and logging, so stay on your toes! There are several nice pullover stops to enjoy the view and take some photographs. My only addition would be just north of the rest stop is Highway 116 which heads west up Cow Canyon which also has a number of sites. If you like early native history in North America, these are some fine examples, although not well known. Please respect these examples of history.See more..
4.5Cajon Group(3 reviews) - Outlier from Hovenweep WAY worth finding Spent 2-3 hours Ancient Ruins
One of the coolest ruins in the area, the Cajon Group is west of Hovenweep. Shows what I believe to be the mass population that existed 1200 years ago. If you make it to Hovenweep, you should go here too!! If you are very lucky, on a clear day you can see Monument Valley itself out to the west. Any info needed, you can get from the Rangers at Hovenweep. Be adventurous, see ALL the outliers and Canyons of the Ancients.See more..
4.0Kodak House(1 review) - Named after a camera stored here by Gustaf Nordenskiöld Ancient Ruins As the southernmost (furthest) site on the Long House Loop of the Wetherill Mesa, it is not often visited. The Kodak house can be seen from an overlook about 2.5 miles from the parking lot. The two-story building site is in a south-facing double alcove at the end of a ravine. The main (lower) section contains a large tower to one side and an array of lesser rooms and kivas to the other. The dwellings are named for a camera that was often left here by Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1880’s), when he was away working on other ruins in the vicinity. Looking at this cliff dwelling from a viewpoint, one has to wonder how the habitants got to it. It looks difficult to access – which was their idea of safety. This area borders Indian reservation so don’t go on any of the nearby unmarked trails. If you are biking the loop, this is worth a stop. Not sure I would walk the whole loop just to see this, especially if short on time.See more..
