8 Mesa Verde National Park

My plan was to camp at Mesa Verde NP. I arrived at Mesa Verde NP entrance station around 4:45 p.m. and found that the park is open until 6:00 p.m. The road from the entrance station into the Park contains several miles of steep roads up and through a mountain. Along the way, the road passes the Morefield Campground A stop at Farview Visitor Center is necessary if you plan to take any of the 3 guided tours of the cliff dwellings as the center sells the admission tickets for the tours. I have been on all of the tours and highly recommend visiting all three sites.

I continued on to the main headquarters and museum, which was open until 6:00 p.m.
There are roads along the edge of the mesa top where people can view the cliff dwellings on the opposite side of a canyon. There are also a lot of displays of how the people lived and constructed dwelling on the mesa top before moving to the cliff dwelling

Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde. Note the people standing above the cliff dwelling in the upper left corner. These people are waiting for the next Ranger lead tour of Cliff Palace.

Step House, located near the Main Park Headquarters. Visitor can conduct a self-guided tour of this structure.

Morefield Campground

The Morefield Campground appears to be a concessionaire-operated business within the Park boundaries. They have a store, restaurant, gas station, showers, and laundromat. For $30.24 I got a tent campground site and shower privileges. As I drove into the campground area, there was a bear cage mounted on a trailer parked beside the road. This was probably to reinforce the reminder to lock food inside their vehicle even if they would be away from the campsite for a short time. The campground is divided into separate sections separate the tent campers from the RVs. The non-RV side of the campground was half full when I selected a spot at around 7:00 p.m. From 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. vehicles including RVs filled the section to capacity. I think a lot of these people were sneaking into the campground at night to avoid paying for a space.