Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde

For both parks go to the ups site for the park and click the "plan your visit" menu. The rangers have a variety of tours depending on the time of year you go and what parts of the park are open at that time. You will be climbing up and down ladders in Mesa Verde. For the main part of Chaco, you will be on pretty flat land, but there are sites that involve hiking up the slopes.

Chaco is much more remote and has fewer facilities. The road in is unpaved for about 15 miles and is not passable if there has been recent rain. When we've gone the road was great once as it had been recently graded and was very washboard another time. There is a VC but no lodging unless you are camping. The nearest motel/hotel we've found was in Bloomfield NM, about a half hour from the road that leads to the park which takes another half hour or so depending on conditions.

Mesa Verde has lodging at Far View lodge from April through October and a pretty good restaurant at the Metate Room. It also has a couple other places to eat. The road in is paved although very curvy as you go up to the top of the mesa. Stop at the VC which is now pretty near the bottom of the mesa to sign up for tours. Allow about a half hour to get from the VC to the dwellings.

Unless you are planning on doing a lot of hiking, you could visit the main sights at Chaco in a long day. I would want to spend at least two days at Mesa Verde, more if the Wetherell Mesa side is open and you plan to visit it too.

I would expect that if you wanted a commercial tour there are some. I've seen Road Scholar tours at MV.