Class A travel in Mesa Verde NP...

Wouldn't want to ride a bike (bicycle) up from the Morefield Campground Area & even less to ride one from the entrance to Far View (visitor center) Area. Maybe ok from Far View. Roads are a little narrow to be sharing the roadway on a bike with cars & RVs. It a motorcycle or scooter (bike) wouldn't be too bad. I'd ridden a 250cc enduro from the CG to Far View.

There are fairly large parking areas at Far View. One could park there & bike to the other areas. When we were there years ago, people would catch a shuttle bus to go see one area of the park, the Wetherill Mesa area.

Likewise, you should be able to find parking farther in at the Spruce Tree Terrace area & might be able to use a bike around that area. Large Tour Buses drive up to that area (not shuttle ones).

From what I remember, the drive from Far View to Spruce Tree area is pretty level going. But it has been since 2010 since I've been there. We only did a drive in & overnight on that trip. There were a few wild mustangs along that way that evening. Loose Horse anyway.

You could ask a Ranger about taking the RV on the Mesa Top Ruins/Cliff Palace Loop Rd.

All depends on how proficient one is on a bike (peddle one), to be able to use one on the Loop Rd. But my memory of that road is a little vague, not real sure if has descents & assents or not. Maybe 1997 since I was on it.

Been a couple of years since I've been up there, it is ~35 miles away after all ;-) I agree that may be a bit of a ride, didn't seem that far when driving. I remember very few to no pullouts and tight parking spaces at the centers, not something I'd want to take our 37' coach into. The website isn't much help other than saying trailers and towed vehicles are not permitted past the campground.

Hopefully someone who is more help will chime in.

Boy, IDK about the bike riding...it would be 21 miles from the RV park inside the park to the most famous of the sites, Cliff Palace. I'm not up to 42 miles on the bike in one day.

When you say, "Parking would be problematic" at the visitors centers, does that mean they are small? If so, would visiting on a weekday work better? Or would parking on a stretch of road leading to the centers be possible?

Mesa Verde's roads would probably be tight but OK but the parking in the various visitor centers would be problematic at best.

There is a campground with hookups actually in the park (you don't want to do the ride up from the park on 160) and you could probably ride your bike around most of the park without too much trouble.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
I did a search here but the info is more general then I'm looking for. I'd like to visit Mesa Verde NP but the web sites I found don't mention specifics for RV's except one map mentions RV parking in the park, but only at one place.

I don't have a toad (but I do have a bicycle) and the park is huge so, can I make my way around the park in a 37' Class A and stop at the various sites, or is it a problem for large Class A's? The NP site map shows a tunnel but it doesn't mention vehicle size. The park doesn't allow trailers passed a certain point, but again, no mention of large RV's.

Anyone been to the Mesa Verde NP in a Class A without a toad? What were you able to see?

Thanks.

You can drive a large rig around BUT...the road(s) are NARROW...and have no real berm or ditch you can roll into and back out of.

Really nice CG there with about 400 spaces...BUT when I was there they had only about 10 or so that has electricity...but it was still a nice CG.

No toad? Rent a car at the local rental place. We had to once ( prior to bringing our own) and we got there the day those lunies killed some cops and they had a man hunt for them. Once finally killed himself and the others they never did catch. I sat with the door open to my RV and it sounded like VietNam outside.....had to have been 100 choppers in the air all at once. Fed...NP service...local cops...news choppers galore.