Exploring Cortez/Mesa Verde, CO
Updated March 21, 2024
Time needed in this town: 1-2 nights
The below information is a complete guide of the best places to stay, the top rated places to dine and drink, and all there is to see and do. We’ve also included a summary of the history of this historic town!
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Where to Stay
Blue Lake Ranch (Mesa Verde)
Canyon of the Ancients Guest Ranch (Cortez)
Kelly Place B&B (Cortez)
Private Sage Canyon Cliff House - Near Mesa Verde National Park - there’s a boulder in the room!
Retro Inn Mesa Verde (Mesa Verde)
Where to Dine & Drink
La Casita De Cortez (Cortez)
Down-to-earth cantina with a homey vibe & outdoor tables serving classic Mexican eats & margaritas.
Pie Maker Bakery (Cortez)
They specialize in sweet & savory pastries, desserts, and artisan bagels. Their baked goods are handmade from scratch using high-quality ingredients that regularly feature local, seasonal, and organic foods. They hand-shape their dough and use only organic butter in all of their pastry treats. The bread flour they bake with is organic and untreated, and their all-purpose unbleached flour is produced right in Montezuma County from Cortez Milling.
Pippo's Cafe (Cortez)
Pancakes, sandwiches & other hearty American dishes fill the menu at this unassuming daytime eatery.
Silver Bean (Cortez)
An airstream coffee shop.
Thai Cortez & Sushi (Cortez)
Modest, easygoing outpost serving classic Thai standards such as curries & veggies plus sushi rolls.
The Farm Bistro (Cortez)
Creative, local cuisine such as yak burgers & relleno pie in a rustic-chic space with a lounge.
Things to See & Do
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Starting in 500 AD, Ancient Pueblo people lived in the Canyons of the Ancients. In the 10th century, the Lowry Pueblo was built, during the Great Pueblo period. These were built with stone, windows facing south, and in U, E, and L shapes. The buildings were located more closely together and reflected religious celebration. Towers were built near kivas and likely used for look-outs. Pottery became more versatile, including pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars and tableware for food and drink. White pottery with black designs emerged, the pigments coming from plants. Water management and conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt-retaining dams also emerged during this period
As refinements in construction techniques increased, the Puebloans built larger pueblos, or villages, on top of the pit-houses, starting about 1090 AD. The village was expanded two times - once in 1103 and again in 1120 until it had 40 rooms, 8 kivas, and one great kiva. They grew corn, squash, beans, and raised turkeys.
At least 8,500 distinct structures have been identified in the monument, and the density of archeological remains is the highest of any region in the United States. The vast majority of stone structures in the national monument are from the Ancient Puebloans era.
Dolores River Canyon
The Dolores River Canyon spans western Colorado’s remarkable high desert ecosystems, from below McPhee Dam, to the Utah state line with an area of over 500,000 acres of public lands.
For centuries, the Indians called it home but by the time the Europeans arrived, they were gone. In the two centuries since that day, the Dolores Valley has been a microcosm of the passing frontier and later, the growth of the West.
The Dolores River Overlook has six individual walk-in camp/picnic sites, as well as one walk-in group site (3 tables and rings). There is a vault restroom at the parking area and no other camping facilities. The views of the Dolores River Canyon from this Ponderosa Pine-dominated site are amazing. A short walk to down the overlook trail (includes rock steps) to the end of the ridge is well worth the effort!
Four Corners U.S.A.
Have you always wanted to be in four places at once?
The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States, consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomous Native American nations, the largest of which is the Navajo Nation, followed by Hopi, Ute, and Zuni tribal reserves and nations. It is the only location in the United States where four states meet.
Hovenweep National Monument
Hovenweep National Monument is located in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah, on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into the San Juan River.
Although Hovenweep National Monument is largely known for the six groups of Ancestral Puebloan villages and its kiva, there is evidence of occupation by hunter-gatherers from 8,000 to 6,000 B.C., until about 200 AD. Later, a succession of early puebloan cultures settled in the area and remained until the 14th century.
Hovenweep became a National Monument in 1923 and is administered by the National Park Service. In July 2014, the International Dark-Sky Association designated Hovenweep an International Dark Sky Park.
Mesa Verde National Park
Established by Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the park occupies 52,485 acres near the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. With more than 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings, it is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. Mesa Verde is best known for structures, such as Cliff Palace, one of the largest cliff dwellings in North America.
Starting c. 7500 BC, Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians known as the, “Foothills Mountain Complex”. The variety of projectile points found in the region indicates they were influenced by surrounding areas, including the Great Basin, the San Juan Basin, and the Rio Grande Valley. Later, Archaic people established semi-permanent rock shelters in and around the mesa. By 1000 BC, the Basketmaker culture emerged from the local Archaic population.
The Pueblo people survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops, such as corn, beans, and squash (the "Three Sisters"). They built the mesa's first pueblos sometime after 650 and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known. By 1285, following a period of social and environmental instability, driven by a series of severe and prolonged droughts, they migrated south to locations in Arizona and New Mexico, including the Rio Chama, the Albuquerque Basin, the Pajarito Plateau, and the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Ute Mountain Tribal Park
The Ute Mountain Tribal Park offers an in-depth experience not to be missed. Tribal members interpret tribal culture, pictographs, cliff dwellings, surface ruins, and artifacts. It has been selected by National Geographic Traveler as one of “80 World Destinations for Travel in the 21st Century,” one of only nine places in the United States to receive this special designation. The Park encompasses approximately 125,000 acres around a 25-mile stretch of the Mancos River, and is located in the Mesa Verde/Mancos Canyon area just outside the boundaries of the National Park.
A History Summary
Christmas day 1886 - Matt Hammond pulled his heavily-loaded wagon, full of lumber, onto the site of the old cattle roundup ground. The lumber was to be used on the construction of the first buildings for the town of Cortez. T
1887 - Cortez was built to house the men who would complete the elaborate network of tunnels, irrigation ditches, and laterals required to divert water out of the Dolores River and into Montezuma Valley. By the spring of 1887, hundreds of men were at work on the new system.
1889 - The “stone block” was completed on the corner of Main and Market and the Guillet Mercantile located inside.
1890 - The town center was further marked by the addition of the Montezuma Valley National Bank, a massive sandstone building on the corner just east of the “stone block.”
1900’s - The cattle industry around the nearby town of Dolores was booming. The large orchards down McElmo Canyon were winning worldwide fame for their giant Delicious apples.
1900 - 1910 - The town prospered and the commercial districts of the town expanded while storefronts sprang up in and among the earliest homes, along Main and Market. Land was selling for $40 per acre.
1906 - Mesa Verde was designated a National Park.
July 10, 1911 - The storms came in and washed out the flumes, laterals, and much of the irrigation system. A wall of water took off down McElmo Creek and cut a canyon within a canyon. In that rich farming area, whole orchards and wheat fields were washed out into Utah.
1920s - The town shrank back as the plight of the farmers continued.
1930s - The dairy industry began to flourish and Cortez had one of the finest creameries in the State. Gas was discovered in a well down McElmo Canyon as well. A new courthouse was built, as was a new high school.
Early 1950s - The town became overrun with jeeps, caterpillar tractors, and men with Geiger counters in hand, in search of yellow-cake uranium. Main Street was finally paved during this time and was connected to U.S. Highway 160.
Late 1950s - Hard times and a slow economy hit the town once again. Main Street businesses were boarded up. Vacant houses and trailers were everywhere. Land prices were depressed and few jobs were available.
1960s - 1970s - The town began to re-stabilize itself as it built upon the strengths of tourism and government. The Dolores River was to be dammed up and a giant reservoir created for agricultural and recreational use in the area. Land prices began to rise, new business opportunities developed, old buildings were given a face-lift and the population began to swell. In addition to the dam project, the prospect of CO2 development and coal enhanced the vision of a spectacular boom.
Late 1970s - Old buildings, like the original post office on Main Street, were redone and a new sense of community pride was building.
1980 - Government was their foremost personal income generator in the county, followed by tourism. and then agriculture. It remains much the same today.