Roadtrippers guide to mysterious Mesa Verde National Park

Some tips for visiting Mesa Verde National Park:

1.) Sometimes people are so excited to go into the cliff dwellings that they forget how impressive they look from afar, so definitely take a bit of time to drive along Ruins Road. It's an angle worth checking out during your visit, especially since there are so many stunning overlooks. It's a twisty, turny, and sometimes steep drive...in case anyone is prone to carsickness. There's also the incredible Mesa Loop Road as well, which is perfect if you're crunched for time during your visit. 2.) The park contains 4,000 archaeological sites spread out over 80 square miles. That can be overwhelming, so plan out what you want to see in advance. Keep in mind that some ruins are self-guided tours only, while others require you to visit on a guided trip with a park ranger. 3.) As far as National Parks go, Mesa Verde is less pet-friendly than others. Leave Fido at home, since pets aren't allowed on the trails or in the buildings. It's not because they don't love dogs, it's because preserving the many archaeological sites is a huge task. They ask the humans stick to the trails and be cautious when visiting the park as well, for the same reason.

Balcony House is an especially amazing group of dwellings within the park because modern day visitors must climb a ladder and crawl through a tunnel to visit. But the Native Americans who lived there would have climbed in using toe-holds carved into the cliff. This site is only accessible through a park tour, so pick up tickets at the visitor center.

Right next door to Mesa Verde, you'll find hundreds of more ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, wall paintings, surface sites and more at Ute Mountain Tribal Park. It's less crowded than Mesa Verde, and it's a totally different experience. You can't even enter the park without a Ute guide, since these are their lands, and so they allow tourists to book full or half day tours of the park. The full-day tour is a three mile hike that takes you to four incredible cliff dwellings, plus the groups are smaller, so you pretty much have the canyon to yourself, and the guides are more than just guides. They're storytellers of sorts, weaving life experience and in-depth knowledge into the historical and cultural information.

There's nothing like a cold beer after a long day of hiking in the sun, so head to Main Street Brewery in nearby Cortez. They brew up some pretty tasty beers, blondes, pilsners, and honey raspberry wheats for those who want to keep it light, and porters, stouts, and schwartzbiers for those who like it darker, and even offer a big menu of pub food to soak it all up.