mesa verde colorado - 700 years tour

We went during the off season so we were limited to the ruins & trails. We will be going back later in the year.

Fantastic cliff dwellings. You will not be disappointed! Museum was just as good. Tons of great stuff. Staff were very helpful!

Felt like we were living in the past. Wonderful job of restoring the cliff dwellings so we can all enjoy them. Two full days was barely enough time to see everything.

We really enjoyed this tour with Sara as our guide. She was passionate about the history of Mesa Verde and presented the information clearly and articulately. We picked-up much more than we would have by visiting the sites on our own.

The NPS website says, "Tours depart Far View Lodge at 8:00 am and 1:00 pm. Tickets may be purchased at the Mesa Verde Visitor and Research Center, Far View Lodge and Terrace, and Morefield Campground. For more information about these tours, visit the ARAMARK website."There is a separate, shorter line at the visitor's center for this tour. These tours fill up quickly during the summer, so you may want to get your ticket the day before you plan to tour. We got there at 2:00 p.m., and got the last 2 seats for the 8:00 a.m. tour the next day. Allow about an hour to get to the parking lot at Far View Lodge if you are staying in Cortez. CO. Our ticket sellers said to allow about 45 minutes inside the park to reach the pickup spot for the tour.Our driver was excellent and our guide was extremely knowledgeable. It is always good to get a tour with a local guide for more insight than just the tourist blurb. Our guide has been narrating this tour since the late 1990s.I highly recommend taking a morning tour since it can get quite hot on the mesa. Wear sunscreen, a hat, and comfortable walking shoes (no sandals, flip flops, heels, or fashion shoes with slick soles). The tour provide bottled water. One 16 oz. bottle of water per hour is recommended for this dry climate. Dehydration may cause leg cramps and be extremely dangerous for people taking certain medications, especially heart meds or metformin for diabetes. The tour involves getting off the bus about a half dozen times and a park ranger guided tour of Cliff Palace. You may opt not to descend to the cliff dwelling and wait in the parking lot area for the rest of your party to return. It is NOT for people with a fear of heights, those who use a cane or walker as it involves a number of steps, clambering over rocks from one ledge to another, and climbing up several ladders. The national park service website says, "The one-hour, ranger-guided tour involves 120 uneven stone steps and climbing five, 8-10 foot (2.6-3m) ladders on a 100 foot (30m) vertical climb. Total walking distance is about 1/4-mile (400m), round-trip." Since I am afraid of heights (edges), I stayed behind while my husband toured Cliff House. The bus tour is absolutely wonderful, and well worth the price, even if you opt not to take the park ranger tour.You get to see the footprint of a kiva, a pit house, and the sun Temple as well as numerous photo opportunity stops for the cliff dwellings. No food is allowed at the ruins. There are a couple of restroom stops, one of which has running water. The other has pit toilets.Food is available at the Far View Coffee shop for a meal either before or after your bus tour.While you may tour the sites on your own for far less money, you will not get the in-depth knowledge and personalized service that you will find on this tour.

I was fortunate to have a well informed guide (Mike) for this tour. He gave the group an in-depth talk about the ancient Pueblo people; their lifestyle and beliefs...as well as the landscape and how it shaped their culture. I certainly came away with a more in-depth understanding.The site itself is amazing and certainly with the background information we received beforehand, one could really understand how they lived. Definitely a must see!

I don't believe this tour is worth the cost, you can do the drive yourself and read the self guide information.

I do not agree with the reviews of this tour by others. My husband and I just returned from Colorado and New Mexico and this tour was one of the highlights. We were on Brian's bus with Dave giving us history and facts as we drove to different areas. What a wealth of information both of these men have and we wished we had had more time. We loved the NPS rancher tour of Cliff Palace and felt she did an excellent job. We both enjoyed every minute of the 4 hours. We stayed at the Far View Lodge and made this tour part of a package. Well worth the money.

When visiting Mesa Verde National Perk during June 2013 we decided to take the Aarmark operated 700 Years Tour. When planning our trip we signed up for this tour for several reasons:1. We had a very limited time in the park (1/2 day) and by taking the guided tour we felt we would be able to see the sights without battling the crowds for parking spots at each sight.2. We have always liked guided tours of cultural sights since in the past we have received more out of the tour than if we visited the sights alone without any background or other information.3. We were spending the night at the Far View Lodge so we were already at the tour starting point and would not have to drive.4. Before visiting the only negative was tour cost. For four of us the tour cost~$160, a bit steep, bit if the tour was good might be worth the cost.With these reasons for taking the tour in mind, below are some notes, comments and tips based on the actual tour experience.Having just completed visits to Grand Canyon, Zion, Hoover Dam and other more popular sights there was a curious lack of people in Mesa Verde. From the restaurants to the gift shops to the parking lots, there just was not that many people touring, so parking at each sight was not an issue. In fact other than the main cliff dwelling sights most lots were empty. You should not have trouble finding a parking spot!The cultural and natural history explained on the tour was ok, but not outstanding. Our guide explained more than we would have figured out on our own, but after the tour we did not feel as if we had learned a lot more than we know before we started. At most sights there were placards explaining most of what the guide explained, so all in all the guided aspect of the tour was ok, but not great. The tour was 4 hours long, but as with all larger group tours, a good percentage of the time was spent getting on and off the bus and moving around. If you did want to visit the sights on the tour on your own, you could do it in a fraction of the time of the tour.One advantage for the tour was that we were staying at The Far View Lodge. Accessing the tour was easy-easy -easy. If had signed up for the tour, but were staying outside the park, you would have to get up pretty early to get drive into the park in time to get the tour. For us this would have made the tour much less attractive.As mentioned the tour cost us a total of $160, which after the tour seems like too much money for what you get. The tour does also include a National Park led tour of Cliff Palace, but this tour can be purchased for $3/person from the National Park Service. As mentioned we felt like the tour was over priced. Some people especially those with less mobility or people who don't like to drive, it might be worth it, but we felt a bit short changed at the end.In conclusion, we felt the tour provided just ok information and provided no real improvement in access than if you drive to the sights yourself and at a pretty high cost. For us the value for your money was just not there and next time we would tour on our own, but for some it might be worth it. You will have to decide if it is worth the cost or not. Happy Travels!

We went on this tour thinking that we wouldn't be able to go see Cliff Palace any other way. But we were wrong and were pretty disappointed with the quality of this 4 hour tour. The tour guide bumbled her way through questions and clearly was not very knowledgable. I was insulted at her insistence in pronouncing Mesa Verde like Mesa Verd, instead of Mesa VerdAY for a start. She was unprofessional and annoying - NEVER ONCE stopped talking into the microphone for the entire duration of the tour - once she even asked anyone over the loudspeaker if they needed to stop for the bathroom, and then looked around waiting for someone to put their hand up....ummmm.....awkward!Each of the stops during the tour were visited for wayyyyyyyyyy too long - about 1/2 an hour at each stop, where our guide continued her rambling explanations of what we were looking at, clearly unsure of herself. My husband and I ended up wandering away from the tour at each stop just so we could give ourselves a break from her voice.Save your 4 hours and drive yourself around - there is nothing on this tour that you can't go and see on your own. You can pay $3 for a tour of Cliff Palace with a National Park ranger (which is also part of the Aramark tour) which is MUCH MUCH better.

I was excited to take this tour, even it meant getting up literally at the crack of dawn to fit breakfast in before its 8AM start. I was sadly disappointed. Way too much talk and not nearly enough on-the-ground exploration of the actual ruins. We did have a great tour of the Cliff Palace given by an impassioned NPS ranger that will stick in my mind for a long time. This tour is given by Aramark, the contractor that runs the lodge and food services. We thought is was very overpriced.My suggestion is to start at the Visitor's Center and sign up for tours of the various attractions. They are inexpensive and really very well presented. Driving between them is easy and takes little time.I might add that we had certain time constraints which limited our time at Mesa Verde. Plan to spend at least a whole day, or better yet, two at this incredible collection of early dwellings. You will be richly rewarded. And, try to visit from May to early September. That's when you have access to the Wetherill Mesa Road, which contains Step House and Long House, among other attractions., We missed seeing both due to the lateness for the year.Treks through the major dwellings is at times strenuous and very small children will have some difficulties. Otherwise, a awesome experience.

This tour took up a lot of time. The tour guide was good, but much of the information will be redundant if you have already toured one or more sites. I think the $3 ranger guided tours are much better and more time efficient. However, if you have physical limitations or if you are having trouble with the altitude, this is a good option. The bus stops at Cliff Palace for the same $3 ranger-led tour, so unfortunately if you can't make the climb down to the Palace, you must wait on the bus until the others finish the tour. The buses are NOT air-conditioned.

I agree with much of what Zippy says but Dave was a very good bus tour guide and told us much more than the Ranger at the Palace site. My mother is older and opted to skip the ranger led palace tour where you climb down and stay with the bus and tour guide. He gave the older ladies all kinds of information about the park and sites while we were climbing down and they were waiting. Also we stayed only half day at Mesa Verde so the tour was a great way for me to climb down to one of the sites at last minute. Caution. If you do take the bus tour sit on the right side since all the sites are located to right of bus. You do not go back the same way you came so it is really crucial to get the right side. We got the left and had to drive our car around to same places to get to see everything. Finally the bus picks up at the Far View Lodge first so it might be smart to get on there instead of second stop at cafe so you can secure the right side.

If you are visiting Mesa Verde you must tour the Cliff Palace, Balcony House and Long House, each tour available for $3 and guided by a park ranger. The various web sites, including the official government site warn of possible limited availability of the tour tickets, which you must buy in person for the three major sites in order to tour them. If you are planning your trip to visit Mesa Verde, you feel forced to at least consider the bus tours offered by Aramark, who also operates the lodge so you are insured the chance to visit at least one of the sites offered. We elected to book the 700 Year Tour, specifically so we could make sure we saw Cliff Palace during our two day stay at the park. The price for the tour is $45 for an adult. This gets you a bus ride on a school bus, not a comfortable motor coach as advertised, a park ranger narrated tour and several bottles of water, which you need to take advantage of due to dehydration and elevation sickness. The park ranger’s insight to the area was very informative and the bus driver was very friendly, however when weighing the difference of $3 Cliff Palace tour and the $45 bus tour, much of what the ranger tells you on the bus could be obtained from pamphlets available at the book store for much less. The tour includes many stops at the free sites along the park loop. Our ranger was an anthropologist and specifically wanted to work at Mesa Verde because it is not a natural park, but one that focuses on culture and the people that lived there. We really enjoyed our ranger and were very disappointed when we reached the real reason for the tour, which was the visit to Cliff Palace to find we were being dumped off to join others who had opted to only buy the $3 ticket. Of the 90 or so people who take the Cliff Palace tour, about 45 were from our bus tour. We had presumed that for the extra cost we would have been given a more private tour, hopefully only our group of fellow bus travelers, but unfortunately not. Luckily, the day before we headed up to Mesa Verde Park, we stopped at the Colorado Visitor Center in Cortez, which in addition to the park also sells tickets to the various Mesa Verde sites, up to one day in advance of your visit and including the day of your visit. The visitor center opens at everyday 8 am until 5 pm, except for holidays, some days they are open until 6 pm. Much to our surprise, in the middle of August, tickets to all the sites were very available. We actually picked the tour times we wanted to do the other major sites based upon recommendation of the agent at the visitor center. Some tours have larger gaps between them based upon when the rangers take breaks, so you can get a view and chance to take pictures without anyone at the site from the previous tour. Unfortunately, we could have booked the Cliff Palace tour at the visitor center and saved $168 for the four of us compared to the tour we booked on-line. When we discussed how we thought the tickets would be harder to get, we were told that most of the local school systems in the area were back in session in early to mid August, which could have explained the ticket availability. At each site you will be given a prepared speech from the ranger on the hazards of the site and the tight spaces, tunnels and ladders you will need to traverse during your tour. If you are at all in reasonable shape and don’t fall apart when faced with 30 foot ladder climb at a very shallow angle, you should be fine. My wife is claustrophobic and afraid of heights and she really enjoyed all three tours. The trick is to not over think it and to keep hydrated. Remember the park is warm-hot in the summer and the elevation is 7,000 – 8,000 feet above sea level. Most visitors to the site are not accustom to how this elevation impacts your body regardless of your physical shape. The rangers indicated that over 10 people had been taken out of the park by ambulance during the first two weeks in August, simply do to dehydration issues. If you are traveling in mid to late August you should consider skipping the bus tour and buy your tickets at the visitor center. Make sure to sign the guest book at the visitor’s center and you may get a free Colorado baseball cap. Regardless the volunteers are really nice and helpful.