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Cedar Tree Tower in Mesa Verde National Park

Sight · Mesa Verde National Park

Cedar Tree Tower

An unusual tower-and-kiva stop beside Mesa Verde's ancient terraces.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Type
Sight
Nearest trail
0.1 mi
Audio stories
5 nearby
  • Parking
  • Scenic viewpoint
  • #14 of 35 sights
DirectionsMap

Hear the audio tour

Cedar Tree Tower and Farming Terraces

Overview

About Cedar Tree Tower

Why stop

  • An unusual tower-and-kiva complex with farming terraces nearby.

Heads up

  • A brief, modest stop beside Mesa Verde’s much larger cliff dwellings.

Map

Where it is

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Full map
SightCedar Tree Tower37.19843, -108.48223
Keep this map with you offline in the Parkwolf app

Plan your stop

Before you go

2 active Mesa Verde alerts

  • ClosureRoad improvements close Far View and Cedar Tree Tower access roadsMentions this placeRoad improvements have closed the access roads to Far View Sites and Cedar Tree Tower to all traffic. - Road work on the first four miles of Main Park Road may cause delays of up to 15 minutes.Official details
  • CautionRockfall area on Knife Edge Trail—keep outDo not enter the rockfall area along the last quarter of Knife Edge Trail; a serious rockfall occurred there. Check current trail information before hiking.Official details
Mesa Verde alerts
A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone
Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Mesa Verde Tour Guide

Your drive to Cedar Tree Tower, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mesa Verde National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

See the Mesa Verde audio tour

Recorded for this place

Cedar Tree Tower and Farming Terraces
0:00 / 0:33
“Cedar Tree Tower and the Farming Terrace Trail are coming up. Stop for a quick look at the unusual tower beside a kiva, visible from the small parking area.”

Plays as you drive up to Cedar Tree Tower in the Parkwolf Mesa Verde Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • Spruce Tree Terrace Café and Chapin Mesa Picnic Area
  • Spruce Tree House and Mesa Verde Museum
  • Color on the Walls
  • The Date Inside a Roof Beam
  • 43 audio storiesacross Mesa Verde’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
  • Wildlife heatmapsfor Black Bear, Mule Deer, Golden Eagle, and 13 more
  • Works offlinemaps, 22 trails, 48 places, and audio download before you lose signal
  • CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
★★★★★
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
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4.7 from 8,600+ ratings

Guide

More about Cedar Tree Tower

A small, unusual Mesa Verde stopCedar Tree Tower is an Ancestral Puebloan tower-and-kiva complex on Chapin Mesa, set apart from…

Cedar Tree Tower is an Ancestral Puebloan tower-and-kiva complex on Chapin Mesa, set apart from a community and overlooking farming terraces. The ruins are visible from a small parking area, so this is a quick roadside stop rather than a substantial hike. Its appeal is the unusual group of structures and the questions it raises, not the scale of a cliff dwelling such as Cliff Palace.

What was the tower for?Mesa Verde's towers were built mainly between A.D. 1100 and 1300.

Mesa Verde's towers were built mainly between A.D. 1100 and 1300. The purpose of tower-and-kiva complexes is unknown: ceremonial use and a mesa-top communication system are among the ideas, but neither is settled. Look for the tunnel within the complex as you take in its unusual layout.

The farming terraces beside itThe separate Farming Terrace Loop is a half-mile walk past ancient farming features.

The separate Farming Terrace Loop is a half-mile walk past ancient farming features. Check dams slowed rain and snowmelt runoff, trapping soil and moisture in pockets where crops could grow. If you want more than a brief look at the ruins, the loop adds a closer look at how people farmed this mesa. For a photo, include both the tower and the circular kiva to show the site's distinctive pairing.

archaeologyancestralpuebloanruinstowerkivafarming

Wildlife

Wildlife in Mesa Verde

All Mesa Verde wildlife maps
Black Bear36 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapMule Deer160 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapGolden Eagle14 sightingsGolden EagleMost seen around noonSighting mapWild Horse54 sightingsWild HorseMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapCoyote24 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapWild Turkey37 sightingsWild TurkeyMost seen around 7 AMSighting map

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mesa Verde. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.

Keep exploring

Near Cedar Tree Tower

See it all on the map

Trails nearby

EasyFarming Terrace Trail0.5 mi · 36 min · 0.1 mi awayA half-mile loop through 800-year-old farming terracesChallengingSpruce Canyon Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 1 mi awayA steep loop into Mesa Verde's cool, shaded canyon.EasySpruce Tree House Trail0.5 mi · 1 hr · 1 mi awayA steep paved path leads to a cliff dwelling beneath an arch.ChallengingPetroglyph Point Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 1 mi awayA rugged loop to Mesa Verde petroglyphs and canyon views.EasySoda Canyon Overlook Trail1.2 mi · 40 min · 2.2 mi awayAn easy mesa walk to three views of Balcony HouseEasySquare Tower House Overlook Trail0.2 mi · 15 min · 2.3 mi awayA rare top-down view into a cliff dwelling's rooms.EasySun Temple Trail0.2 mi · 18 min · 2.3 mi awayA short paved walk to Sun Temple and a Cliff Palace view.ChallengingBalcony House Tour0.3 mi · 1 hr · 2.7 mi awayTry the tour if steep ladders and a tight crawl suit you.

More stops nearby

Restaurant · 0.9 mi awaySpruce Tree Terrace CaféA canyon-view patio makes lunch an easy break between sights.Picnic area · 1 mi awayChapin Mesa Picnic AreaA handy lunch break near Spruce Tree Terrace.Sight · 1 mi awayMesa Verde MuseumA 1920s museum built from the same sandstone as the cliff dwellings.Sight · 1 mi awaySpruce Tree House OverlookA remarkably intact cliff dwelling tucked under a natural sandstone alcove.Sight · 1.1 mi awayChapin Mesa AmphitheaterA 1938 sandstone campfire circle above Spruce CanyonSight · 2.1 mi awayPithouseAn excavated early home with a floor plan you can read.Sight · 2.2 mi awayCliff PalaceA 150-room cliff dwelling, seen from above or entered by ladder.Sight · 2.3 mi awayNavajo Canyon ViewA quick paved pause over a broad, sandstone canyon.

Parkwolf’s Mesa Verde ranking

Top sights in Mesa Verde

All 48 places
  1. 1Cliff PalaceSight
  2. 2Balcony HouseSight
  3. 3Long HouseSight
  4. 4Spruce Tree House OverlookSight
  5. 5Square Tower House OverlookSight
  6. 6Mesa Verde MuseumSight

Take Parkwolf to Mesa Verde.

The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.

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