Colorado has a couple National Parks. Even though they’re just a few hours from one another, they couldn’t be more different. I stopped at both on the same trip, and had a bit of a limited time frame for them. While I wish I could have done multiple days, I had to fit everything into one. Here’s my guide to spending just one day in Mesa Verde National Park.
The Setup
My first note here is that I did not do any extreme hiking in Mesa Verde. None. You do not have to be in shape or able to knock out miles and miles to see this park.
That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy long hiking. I had to skip it for other reasons.
I was staying in Durango for this part of my trip. An immune system in the gutter mixed with not drinking enough water meant I was suffering from altitude sickness, and in a baaaaad way. What was supposed to be TWO day exploring at Mesa Verde got pushed to 1 day of laying in a hammock at my campsite, and then trying to see what we could fit into just one day… and not overexerting myself.
While this wasn’t my ideal way to see the park (I’m a hiker!!), it was what I had to do.
Overall, there was a bunch of driving, paired with 1 short hike, and a lot of what I’ll call short walks to get you through the viewpoints and pit houses and whatnot.
About Mesa Verde
There are all sorts of different reasons people visit the different National Parks. Some are for the epic views, like Yosemite. Some are for the wildlife, like Yellowstone. Some are for the history, like Hot Springs.
Mesa Verde is known for being more of a history buff park. You aren’t going to find waterfalls to stand under, and you’re not going to find tourist heavy hikes with chains you need permits for. This park is all about the archaeological sites. There are almost 5000 individual sites in this park!
This is one of the parks that Teddy Roosevelt established, and it was the first that was established specifically to “preserve the works of man”.
Cliff Dwellings
Most people go here to see the cliff dwellings, and for good reason. It really is amazing to see entire villages carved out of cliff walls, and imagining the fact that people lived in them.
In addition to the popular cliff dwellings though, you’ll be able to see other types of homesteads as pueblos and pithouses. Laid out in front of you is an actual timeline of how the Puebloans lived and evolved. For the first 600 or so years, they lived mostly on the mesa tops, and in the last 100 or so years of being in this area they started moving down and building cliff dwellings.
The dwellings range from 1 room to massive 150+ room structures.
While in the park, you can see and explore both the popular picture perfect cliff dwellings, as well as the sites previously built that sit on top of the mesas.
The NPS website gives an amazing timeline of the finding of all these sites and how it was handled over here
Getting There
This is a DRIVE.
Again, this Is a DRIIIIIVE.
It’s not one of those parks like Bryce where you can stroll in and wander around the most popular area near the front. You’ll be in your car for a bit.
If you’re coming from Durango, you have about a 40 minute drive until you get to the park. You’ll notice leaving the mountains behind and entering a completely different type of terrain.
You have a 4 or 5 mile drive from the main road to the first lookout pullout (mancos valley overlook) and the campground. From there, it’s about 10 miles to the point where you can decide which mesa you want to visit, though there are some stops and overlooks along the way.
It’ll take you another 5 miles to get to the end of the Chapin, and another 12 or so to get to the Wetherill.
According to the parks FAQ’s once you enter the park… it’ll be 21 miles (which is about 45 minutes at the posted speed limit) to see your first cliff dwelling.
The Mesas
Chapin Mesa
Chapin is the more popular of the two. This is where you’ll find the famous Cliff Palace.
Here’s where you’ll need to make some decisions. I did NOT book any of the ticketed tours. When I was visiting, I wanted to do one of Cliff Palace, but it was closed. Instead for this I opted to just do some self guided wandering.
At the start of the Chapin Mesa, there is a place to get some food with a view at the Spruce Tree Terrace, which is a great little cafe.
You can visit the Chain Mesa Archaeological Museum, and the Spruce Tree house.
From there, it branches off into two different legs. One brings you to Cliff Palace and the Balcony House. This is where you can get to these places, and also where the overlooks are, so you can see them nestled into the cliff edges from the other side.
If you take the other branch, you’ll be doing the Mesa Top Loop.
This seems to be less popular… but I highly recommend it. This is where you are up top on the mesa (if you didn’t gather that from the name LOL) and can see the older structures that existed for hundreds of years before the Cliff houses were built.
It’s a 6 mile loop drive with lots of places to stop off. You’ll see the pit houses, a tower house, and even get to stop and see a Sun Temple that was built.
You can see most of these things directly from the parking areas or very short walks. There are a couple longer trails on this Mesa you can do. The Spruce Canyon is around 2.5 miles, and there’s another 2.5 mi trail off that if you want to see Petroglyphs.
WETHERILL MESA
Doing both of the mesa legs would ideally be done over two days. I only had one day in Mesa Verde though, so I had to scoot through both in one go.
The Wetherill Mesa is the further one. This is where you’ll want to go if you want to do some longer hikes, or take the tram at the bottom.
Please note, it’s only open during the warm season, AND they don’t allow any vehicle over 25ft in length down it (or over 8000lbs).
The more popular spot here is seeing the Long House, but as a warning it isn’t self guided. You’ll need to get a tour ticket for that.
The only thing I was able to do on this Mesa was one small mileish hike to get to the Step House.
Even though it was a longer drive to get down here, I’d highly recommend this. It’s a completely self guided tour of one of the cliff dwellings.
It was a very short hike down, and you get to actually walk THROUGH the Step House on your own and take your time seeing it.
If you brought your bike, they are allowed on the 5 mile Long House Loop road! They have bike racks at the trailheads so you can park and hike from there.
Since it’s a completely paved road, this is also one perfect if you brought your dog.
Self Guided Things To Do
These are the things you can do on your own
-Mesa Top Road
-Park Point
-Far View Sites Complex
-Mesa Verde Museum
-Views of the Spruce Tree House
-Cedar Tree Tower
-Step House
-Badger House Trail.
-Cliff Palace Loop Road.
Cliff Dwelling Tours
These are the guided tours you can take
-Cliff Palace
-Balcony House
-Long House
Other Things to Do in Mesa Verde
Have more than 1 day? Go camping!
Outside of hiking and touring the dwellings, there are a lot of other options as well! There is a campround here called Morefield. It seems like a great place if you want to stay a couple days and really soak in the area and history.
Stargazing
Stargazing is a big deal here as well, because it’s a dark sky park! A dark sky park is an area that minimizes as much light pollution as possible. It benefits wildlife, and our own health as much as it does wonders for those who love looking up at the night sky.
(Seriously. Spend a week camping in a dark sky designated area. At the end of that week, you’ll feel SO refreshed and just… better. It’s like your body is able to quickly adapt right back to how things are supposed to be.)
There are photography and just sky watching things that you can do in there park and read about here
The Other Stuff
Then there are all the things that are always available at parks.
Bird watching.
The junior ranger program.
You can even download the national parks app and listen to audio tours.
Outside of Mesa Verde National Park
My one day in Mesa Verde was a little side quest adventure I did on my roadtrip up 550, where I stayed a few nights in Durango.
If you want to be closer to a bigger town with a gorgeous downtown strip area full of stores (and breweries), and are camping, I’d highly recommend the campground I stayed in, Junction Creek.
I wrote a post about the campground over here. I stayed there for a few nights before heading further up 550. If you’re into hiking, this is also the stretch where one of my favorite shorter hikes with epic views is.
Top Brewery pick in Durango
If you’re interested in the breweries portion, I’ve been to quite a few of them in Durango (and honestly, NONE were bad!!) but I think my favorite one may be Anarchy Brewing.
It’s small.
It’s not on the main street and isn’t a full blown restaurant so it’s not packed.
The punk rock metal whatever vibes made me feel at home.
Most importantly… I didn’t have a single bad beer there (and I tried the entire menu on BOTH of my visits lol). The bartender didn’t even flinch when I asked for flights (and as a bartender… I know they’re our least favorite thing to pour).
I came here and had a flight on my FIRST trip to Durango back in 2018. I also apparently completely forgot I did this… because on my most recent winter trip to Durango (can you tell I LOVE this area?) I went back and didn’t remember going the first time until I looked back and saw a picture of a drink I had there. haha. That said, on my most recent trip… I liked it so much I came here TWO nights in a row!
Protip: take your camera to the bathroom.
Other GREAT breweries in/around Durango:
First, I want it to be known that I did NOT stop in Cortez. Cortez is the closest town to Mesa Verde. I see they also have a lot of highly ranked breweries and restaurants… but we skirted into Mesa early in the morning and headed directly back to Durango for camp after. I’m not intentionally leaving out things in Cortez, I’ll just have to go BACK and explore there before I can make recommendations, ya know?
That said… breweries in durango (and uh, further up 550) that I enjoyed besides Anarchy.
–Ska Brewing
-Steamworks
-Carver
-Avalanche Brewing in Silverton. (update. This place has apparently closed and is turning into a sports bar. womp)
-Ouray brewing in Ouray.
Things around you might be interested in, if you like Mesa Verde
If you’re on a road trip through this area and stopping further east, around Pagosa Springs… it’s the perfect place for waterfall chasing followed by a trip to the springs.
I’m slowly increasing the amount of posts I write about Colorado in general. It’s one of my favorite places to visit, and I try to spend as much time as I can there!
Directly to the west of here is Utah, where I fell in love with the mighty five.
National Park hopper? I’m slowly trying to visit ALL OF THEM!
