Top Reasons to Go to Mesa Verde National Park

Cliff dwellings: Built atop the pinyon-covered mesa tops and hidden in the park's valleys is a wondrous collection of 600 ancient dwellings, some carved directly into the sandstone cliff faces.

Ancient artifacts: Mesa Verde is a time capsule for the Ancestral Puebloan culture that flourished here 700 years ago; more than 4,000 archaeological sites and three million Puebloan objects have been unearthed at Mesa Verde.

Geological marvels: View the unique geology that drew the Ancestral Puebloan people to the area: protected desert canyons, massive alcoves in the cliff walls, thick bands of sandstone, continuous seep springs, and soils that could be used for both agriculture and architecture.

Bright nights: Mesa Verde's dearth of pollution makes for cloudless nights that provide a spectacular vision of the heavens punctuated by shooting stars, passing satellites, and—if the conditions are right—eerie lightning flashes from distant thunderheads.