Alt Text

Detail map of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado showing a park road looping around a cluster of trails, overlooks, and other features. The map is shaded green and tan to show the terrain, and the park’s stair-shaped boundary line comes down and across the top left corner.

Extended Description

Two thirds of the way across the map, the road enters the top edge and travels south before scooping in a wide U shape that passes through a tunnel as it turns west and then veering south once again in the lower left quadrant of the map. Montezuma Valley Overlook with restrooms, a picnic area, and a trail leading to an overlook is on the final hairpin turn headed south.

Back near the top of the map, Point Lookout, at 8,472 feet (2,569 meters), sits at the end of the 2.2-mile-long (3.5 kilometers) Point Lookout Trail, which begins near the Morefield Campground and runs roughly parallel to the main road. The campground and services are open seasonally. On the lower end of the campground are showers, laundry, food services, camper store, fuel, and a ranger station.

Heading west from the campground, Prater Ridge Trail is split into two loops that reach from the park road almost to the western park boundary. The North Loop is 3.6 miles (5.7 kilometers) and South Loop is 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) for a total of 7.8 miles (12.6 kilometers). The lowest point of South Loop is just above the tunnel part of the main road.

Cresting above North Loop’s northernmost curve is Knife Edge Trail (2 miles/3.2 kilometers), which begins near the top of Morefield Campground. The end of Knife Edge Trail is just above The Knife Edge, at 8,290 feet (2,527 meters), due north of Montezuma Valley Overlook.

Legend

A scale in the top left corner of the map measures distances of 0.5 kilometers and 0.5 miles.