Mesa Verda National Park

Colorado

Crossing into Colorado, the landscape shifted from desert pastels to high-country pine and sage. Mesa Verde National Park—a UNESCO World Heritage Site and certified Dark Sky Park—protects more than 52,000 acres of rugged mesas, canyons, and some 600 cliff dwellings built by the ancestral Puebloan people over seven centuries ago. It’s a place where history doesn’t just whisper—it echoes.

I’d read online about two ranger-led tours that required ladder climbs—Cliff Palace and Balcony House—so we stopped at the Visitor Center to check availability. From there, we booked a site at Morefield Campground, tucked among pinyon pines and junipers. The evening was cool and crisp, stars beginning to scatter across the sky as baby deer wandered between the campsites. Kodi watched them from the van window, tail wagging in silent fascination.

Morning broke with the smell of coffee and wood smoke. We grabbed breakfast at the Knife Edge Café—a perfect bacon-egg sandwich and a strong black coffee—before tackling the 20-mile climb up the winding park road to the Cliff Palace Loop.

Our tour was led by Ranger Tess, whose enthusiasm made the ancient world come alive. We descended stone steps and climbed three fixed ladders into the cliff dwelling itself—a honeycomb of sandstone rooms tucked beneath an enormous alcove. Standing there, you could feel the ingenuity and grace of a civilization that once thrived in these canyons, long before highways or headlights or any concept of “the West.”

It was an amazing day—one of those rare places where the past feels close enough to touch, and the silence itself seems sacred.