Mesa Verde Marks 120th Anniversary Year After Slight Visitation Dip

Cars were already streaming up the mesa by spring break when Superintendent Kayci Cook-Collins came down. "It is spring break. It is starting," she told Montezuma County commissioners during a recent briefing. "As I came down the mesa, lots of cars going up. I think the long dry spell of winter is just about over."

The optimism arrives during a milestone year. Mesa Verde National Park marks its 120th anniversary on June 29, a date that stacks three celebrations at once: the park's founding, Colorado's 150th birthday, and the nation's 250th year. Park leaders briefed county commissioners on visitation trends, staffing, and a summer slate that includes anniversary events, long-term infrastructure projects, and wildfire-mitigation work.

The backdrop is a modest but real slide in numbers. The park recorded about 475,000 visitors in 2025, a 3.4% decline from 2024. Year-to-date visitation through February sat at roughly 13,000 people, a figure Cook-Collins described as "oddly low," though she said traffic was already picking up. Commissioner Jim Candelaria asked whether the dip was typical or whether a clear cause explained it. Cook-Collins cited several possible factors: uncertainty during last October's federal government shutdown, a drop in international travel, and a broader multi-year downward trend. During that shutdown period, the main 20-mile park road stayed open without fees, but tours, facilities, trails, and historic sites were largely closed due to limited staffing.

The park is not bracing for another difficult season. Seasonal hiring is nearly complete, and Cook-Collins said Mesa Verde expects to operate normally this summer across its 52,120 acres, 21 trails, and more than 4,000 Ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites, including the twelfth and thirteenth century cliff dwellings that draw visitors from around the world.

For anyone not waiting until the June anniversary events, the Petroglyph Point Trail on the park's southeastern side is already seeing visitors. The 2.6-mile trail begins around Chapin Mesa Museum, follows along Spruce Canyon, and offers far-off views of Spruce Tree House. Hikers can spot roughly 30 petroglyphs depicting humans and animals, including one of a lion. The trail saw mild action on a recent Sunday despite a slight bite in the wind, a sign that the season is shifting even before the centennial summer officially begins.