Experiencing Mesa Verde National Park In An RV

Above, Square Tower House. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Mesa Verde National Park is located in the southwest corner of Colorado. The nearest towns are Cortez and Mancos. 

It is a national park whose focus is on manmade dwellings by ancient Native Americans instead of natural features. I was last there two years ago.

TravelAwaits has posted an article with eight tips on visiting Mesa Verde National Park in an RV.

The article makes one error. It states there's no concessionaire there and to bring your own food and beverages. Aramark is the concessionaire and there are restaurants and snack bars in Mesa Verde.

Above, at camp at the Cortez KOA Kampground. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

That aside, the article does provide some useful information including restaurants and campgrounds in nearby towns. We stayed at the KOA Kampground in Cortez.

The article begins with:

Mesa Verde National Park is found on Colorado’s Western border and is one of the most unique parks in the collection. You’ll discover, among other amazing sights, the amazing and sacred Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, where the ancient Indigenous people lived for over 700 years, from A.D. 550 to 1300. 

The park consists of 52,073 acres of federal land. Totally deserted by A.D. 1300 (no one knows exactly why, but warfare seems to be a factor), President Teddy Roosevelt made the pristine landscape a national park on June 29, 1906.

Mesa Verde National Park is within an hour’s drive from Durango and Dolores, both of which make excellent home bases for your RV travels. Here are some tips for visiting the park in an RV, plus suggestions for where to stay and eat along the way.

To read the full article, go here. 

To access the National Park Service's official website for Mesa Verde National Park, go here.