Mesa Verde or Ute Mountain ?
 

Planning a trip the end of August.
I could use opinions about the choosing between Mesa Verde or the Ute Mountain Tribal Park, Towaoc. I have read some reviews favoring the Indian tour. I don't think I will have time for both! We love to view ruins - any suggestions?
 

Mesa Verde.

Mesa Verde, BUT give yourself time to go through the major ruins like Long House, Balcony House, Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree house. Some of them require tickets for timed entry. I checking the web site to see what tickets are allocated when.

Step House and Spruce Tree House are self guided. The others require tickets.

I am not up to date on just when the tickets become available for the tours. They are sold at the visitor center. In years past, I arrived when the center opened and got the tickets I wanted.
Then I toured Spruce Tree House on the self guided tour while I waited for my time on the other houses.

The two best ones are Balcony House and Long House.

NOW, a word of caution. Balcony House is NOT a stroll in the park. It requires going up and down. Some of the up is on a 30+ foot ladder. If that kind of height bothers you, or if you are not in physical condition to climb it, I suggest not going.

There is also some crawling through a short tunnel. I thought it was fun! But not everybody does.

Long House is also quite a trip. It is second on my list.

I've never been to Ute Mt. Tribal Park. Looks interesting, but I really doubt those ruins can compare to the ones at Mesa Verde National Park. If you do go to Mesa Verde, take one of the ranger lead tours.

Other places to visit if you like ruins would be Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico, Hoovenweep National Monument in Utah and Canyon de Chelly National Monument in AZ.

Utahtea

Chaco is an amazing place. We went there all primed for horrible roads, but it didn't happen. I grew up driving dirt roads, and the road to Chaco from US 555 was a boulevard relative to Geneva County, Alabama roads when I was a youngster.

The buildings at Chaco are mind-boggling.
The skill used in their construction is incredible when one considers that the builders had neither steam nor liquid water to power any of their tools.

i also recommend chaco canyons. i enjoyed them more than mesa verde, although mesa verde was pretty cool too. if you do go to chaco, whatever you do, DO NOT stay at the so-called B&B right outside of the park. it was awful and would have driven straight to albuquerque had i known how bad it was going to be.

We recently returned from a trip to the southwest including Mesa Verde. It was a highlight of our trip. We stayed at Far View Lodge in a new Kiva room. The ruins were very interesting and the tours well organized and informative. My daughter enjoyed seeing wild turkeys and horses. We also enjoyed two terrific meals in the Metate dining room (possibly the best of our trip including fine dining in Santa Fe). We highly recommend this wonderful amazing place.

Mesa Verde is fantastic. We have gone several times. Don't know about Ute Mtn.