Cliff Palace

This is one of the most beautiful places in the US. The entire park is stunning as you drive towards one of the main sites. The roads are well kept and the guides are extremely professional and courteous. This site is magical and beyond beautiful. The structures and architecture are impressive to see. The 1.5 mile walk and ladders are super easy to manage. The tour guides were very informative and funny. You must buy the tickets before going into the park. Take a picture of the tickets or print them out as cell phone signal is low to nonexistent at the site. There are restrooms, water and plenty of parking spaces. After visiting this site, I highly recommend driving the loop roads inside the park to see even more of the breathtaking beauty of this national park and learn more of the history of the Natives that lived here.

Definitely worth the tour reservation fee. I would say the reservation is a requirement because most tours are full and will not be able to accept walk-ups. We went the end of September, so it was warm, not hot. We were expecting cold and rainy, but the forecast change that morning. We arrived early ended up listening to the one ranger and almost discourage people from going on the tour due to a variety of possible health issues. We did not receive the same speech from our tour guide, just basics regarding being able to climb the ladders. I would recommend a good pair of shoes, as there is sand on the rock stairs on the way down and up. My wife is definitely afraid of heights, but has very little issue in climbing any of the ladders, so this should not dissuade you in going. The history is interesting, and should almost be reverent in realizing we are more alike as humans than we are different. I was wondering about the lighting for photography. We wanted an earlier start, and we didn't have to fight with half shadows. But I am still wondering if the late afternoon shadows provide added texture to the photos in general... Thoroughly enjoyed our tour at Cliff Palace.

🌄 Absolutely Worth the Visit – Cliff Palace is a Must-See! 🏺✨ If you’re visiting Mesa Verde, Cliff Palace is THE highlight you can’t miss! It’s truly a step back in time – standing in front of those ancient cliff dwellings is absolutely surreal. You must see it with your own eyes to believe it. 🎟️ TRAVELER TIP: Make sure to buy your $8 ticket in advance on recreation.gov — it’s the only way to access the site and tours book up fast! The tour is ranger-guided and filled with fascinating facts about the Ancestral Puebloans who built this breathtaking structure. 🚗 It’s a 20-mile scenic drive from the park entrance to Cliff Palace, so plan accordingly. I recommend the early morning tour – not only is it cooler and more shaded, but the lighting makes the views even more magical! 💧 No hiking trails around this area, and no water nearby, so come prepared with your own refillable bottle. 🚻 Bathrooms near the site were very stinky during our visit – just a heads-up! 🏞️ The visitor center, however, was a pleasant surprise: super clean, with great exhibits, awesome souvenirs, and seriously delicious food! Great spot to recharge before or after the tour. ⛰️ Whether you're a history buff or a nature lover, Cliff Palace is a unique adventure that’s 100% worth it. Just plan ahead, come early, and soak it all in!

Was a cool experience to be able to see how people lived in the cliff dwellings. You don’t really get to explore or take photos, just kinda listen to the ranger talk about the history and walk through. It was a nice experience, but wasn’t overall exciting.

Absolutely worth the $8/person tour! Must be able to climb ladders and walk up/down steep steps! Definitely wear good hiking/active shoes

Words have a hard time describing the true awesome scope and scale of this magnificent place. Make sure you get the reservation online prior or else you won't be able to go. Similar to some of the other places there at Mesa Verde you have to climb a ladder not terribly strenuous for the mildly in shape. Bring water and enjoy the majesty.

Reservations required! You can go to recreation.gov and tickets are $8/person. There are also restrooms and water available at this trailhead. I’m afraid of heights, and did just fine with the ladders on this tour, so don’t worry too much about that. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America and I loved learning about the history of the ancestral Pueblo peoples. Mesa Verde in general is such a unique place, and a must stop if you’re in the area.

Beautiful view of Cliff Palace. We took a visit mid-November and it was crowd-less which was nice. It’s a long drive to these views but worth it, bring snacks and a lunch. Stop at the visitor center, get your passport book stamped and then head into the park.

When you visit Mesa Verde, one of the big highlights and an absolute must-dos are the guided tours of the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people, built around 800 years ago and are still so wonderfully preserved. Cliff Palace is one of the four locations you can book a guided tour for, and it was such an incredible experience. Our guide, Sachil, clearly had so much passion for the culture and all the dwellings - such great knowledge. In comparison to Balcony House, this tour is physically much easier to do, and the tour group is larger in comparison. Even though you can't walk through the dwellings like you do with Balcony House, you do get to walk up close to Cliff Palace, and it's much easier to take in the craftsmanship here. While we liked Balcony House a bit more, Cliff Palace was still such a treasure that we would come back and visit again. We hiked on a June afternoon - so while it was hot outside, we were walking in shade nearly the entire time. But still make sure to bring plenty of water because it was still hot. Tours can be booked up to 14 days in advance for $8/ticket. Definitely book at 14 days out if you can to ensure you get the best tour time. I booked 13 days out and a lot of the tour times were already sold out. Would definitely recommend taking this tour on your visit. It provides so much cultural appreciation, that it really brings up the trip to Mesa Verde.

Our tour guide was very young and seemed nervous. Her knowledge about the cliff palace wasn't great and she didn't have answers to most questions. However, the tour was required to see the Pueblo up close, so it was worth it.

Very well preserved cliff dwellings! This was my first experience seeing dwellings so well-preserved out of rock hidden on the side of cliffs and high rocky hills, and it was fantastic! The drive is great, too. Nice paved roads, plenty of overlook spots to pull over and take pictures. It would be awesome to take a guided tour of the dwellings, but besides the price, they lasted several hours, which we didn't build into our trip time-table.

We traveled here in September. It is an interesting park. There are high switch backs with views of great valleys as long as the ancient peoples cliff dwellings. We didn't do any hiking here but lots of people were. We took the drive thru the park. There is a cafe where food is available and also a gift shop. The visitors center has things to look at as well. The cliff dwellings we're incredible to see. We did spent a full day at the park.

The tour of the Cliff Palace was the highlight of our visit to Mesa Verde. It is the largest and most spectacular cliff house or really cliff dwelling in the park. The tour information says Strenuous. People with health problems shouldn't go. You have to climb stairs, uneven sandstone steps that are not to OSHA standards and long gaps for people who aren't long legged and the steps go down, then you walk along the cliff and, then, you have to climb 3 ladders back up to the top of the mesa (it's really a cuesta which is similar to a mesa but sloping sides). But it is very much worth the effort to take the tour. The ranger that gives you the tour tells the tale of these cliff dwellers; in-depth information as you are standing where the cliff dwellers sat or worked. The one thing people have said was they were surprised by how much we don't know still. We don't know what drove them to live on the cliff face or why they left. Was it to avoid danger or because of the drought? I like that we don't know everything. I'm still thinking of them and how they lived. Maybe they moved there because the view was outstanding. And left to find something new. It's something to ponder. I do recommend taking the tour if you are able. It wasn't as hard as I imagined from the description. They still have people who they have to have medical assistance and help back up. It would be worth it to prepare for this awe-inspiring tour. You may be talking about it long afterwards.

Amazing. Get your tickets for this tour!! Short hike to the Palace and not hard at all.

We had a 9:00 AM tour at Cliff Palace so we drove through the park to get to it. We saw some Wild Horses along the way and lots of fire damage. We got to the Cliff Palace trailhead and hiked down to the viewing area to wait for the Ranger. What an incredible sight of the village in the valley on the wall. The Ranger showed up and shared some great information and the safety information. We then started the hike down some stairs and some carved steps through some narrow rock areas. When we arrived at the palace we were greeted by a very informative ranger who started as an Archeologist in the park and stayed as a ranger. He provided some great information and then let us tour the areas that we could on our own. Then we met with another ranger who was a descendent of the ancients that lived in the area and she provided some real information about life in the area, Then was the climb out over some stone cut stairs and two 15 foot tree ladders through a narrow crevice. After catching our breath, we did the pullouts and trails along the rest of the Chapin Mesa. The Soda Canyon Trail provided some great views of the valley and of Balcony House. We then tried to visit Spruce Tree House but that was closed and has been for a while. Looks like it will be closed for a while as it needs some major reconstruction due to a rock slide.

What an amazing dwelling!! Both, Cliff Palace and Balcony House are ranger led visits only. We visited in July 2019, so pre-Covid, not sure how and if visits are allowed at the time of posting. The interesting fact that I really didn't expect was that this is almost like a little town. More than 100 rooms have been found inside this dwelling which is completely unbelievable. Based on a design and detail looks like Cliff palace was built for more important community members and possibly important event, due to quantify of kivas present. Also my kids noticed people were not very tall. When you are climbing and trying to squeeze thru the passages, it looks like they were around 5-5.5 ft tall, which is not surprising if you look at their eating habits. Very magical, would love to see it in the winter.

We toured Cliff Palace with Jacob. He was the BEES KNEES. He's the kind of tour guide that makes you want to spend your entire day learning about anything...he could've told us the history of lint and it would have been wildly intriguing. The dwelling was that much better because of the storytelling abilities of Jacob. Worth it ($5 per tour), especially if you get him or someone of that caliber!!