Mesa Verde National Park is one of the best sites for visitors to take an incredible look into the lives of the ancestral Puebloan people who made the area their home for over seven hundred years. The park contains over four thousand archeological sites, the most famous of which are the six hundred well-preserved cliff dwellings. While most of the dwellings require guides, visitors can freely explore the Step House and the Spruce Tree House on their own.
The park also offers several excellent walking and hiking trails for people of all ages. The two-mile Petroglyph Point Trail is the only trail in the park from which to view petroglyphs, while the shorter Farming Terrace Trail provides an interesting exploration of a series of prehistoric dams built by the Puebloans to create farming terraces. Visitors may also enjoy a spectacular sunset from the Knife Point Trail or take the Wetherill Mesa Drive to the top of the mesa for panoramic views of the cliff dwellings.
