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Spruce Tree Terrace Café in Mesa Verde National Park

Restaurant · Mesa Verde National Park

Spruce Tree Terrace Café

A canyon-view patio makes lunch an easy break between sights.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Type
Restaurant
Nearest trail
0.1 mi
Audio stories
13 nearby
  • Food
  • Parking
DirectionsMap

Hear the audio tour

Spruce Tree Terrace Café and Chapin Mesa Picnic Area

Overview

About Spruce Tree Terrace Café

Why stop

  • Navajo tacos and other Southwest favorites offer a local option.

Heads up

  • Visitor opinions vary on value and food quality.

Map

Where it is

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RestaurantSpruce Tree Terrace Café37.18616, -108.48872
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Plan your stop

Before you go

2 active Mesa Verde alerts

  • ClosureRoad improvements close Far View and Cedar Tree Tower access roadsRoad 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 Spruce Tree Terrace Café, 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

Spruce Tree Terrace Café and Chapin Mesa Picnic Area
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“You're approaching Spruce Tree Terrace Café and the Chapin Mesa picnic area near the museum. The café is a convenient lunch stop between sites, serving burgers, salads, and Southwestern dishes including Navajo tacos.”

Plays as you drive up to Spruce Tree Terrace Café in the Parkwolf Mesa Verde Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • Spruce Tree House and Mesa Verde Museum
  • Color on the Walls
  • Cedar Tree Tower and Farming Terraces
  • Pithouse
  • 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!!!!”
JMJamesApp Store review
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4.7 from 8,600+ ratings

Guide

More about Spruce Tree Terrace Café

A meal stop near the museumSpruce Tree Terrace Café is a casual, cafeteria-style restaurant near Mesa Verde’s headquarters…

Spruce Tree Terrace Café is a casual, cafeteria-style restaurant near Mesa Verde’s headquarters and museum. It makes a convenient place to sit down between touring the exhibits and the cliff dwellings. Choose indoor seating or the patio, which looks out across a canyon.

Order Southwestern favoritesThe menu pairs American classics with local Southwestern dishes, including burgers, salads and…

The menu pairs American classics with local Southwestern dishes, including burgers, salads and Navajo tacos. Visitor opinions on food and value vary, so think of it first as a practical meal stop during a park day.

A winter lunch optionDuring winter, this is the park’s only dining facility, but service is limited to midday.

During winter, this is the park’s only dining facility, but service is limited to midday. Hours shift by season, so check the current schedule before building your visit around lunch.

cafediningsouthwest

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 Spruce Tree Terrace Café

See it all on the map

Trails nearby

ChallengingSpruce Canyon Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 0.1 mi awayA steep loop into Mesa Verde's cool, shaded canyon.ChallengingPetroglyph Point Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 0.1 mi awayA rugged loop to Mesa Verde petroglyphs and canyon views.EasySpruce Tree House Trail0.5 mi · 1 hr · 0.1 mi awayA steep paved path leads to a cliff dwelling beneath an arch.EasyFarming Terrace Trail0.5 mi · 36 min · 0.9 mi awayA half-mile loop through 800-year-old farming terracesEasySquare Tower House Overlook Trail0.2 mi · 15 min · 1.4 mi awayA rare top-down view into a cliff dwelling's rooms.EasySun Temple Trail0.2 mi · 18 min · 1.6 mi awayA short paved walk to Sun Temple and a Cliff Palace view.EasySoda Canyon Overlook Trail1.2 mi · 40 min · 1.7 mi awayAn easy mesa walk to three views of Balcony HouseChallengingBalcony House Tour0.3 mi · 1 hr · 2.1 mi awayTry the tour if steep ladders and a tight crawl suit you.

More stops nearby

Picnic area · 0.1 mi awayChapin Mesa Picnic AreaA handy lunch break near Spruce Tree Terrace.Sight · 0.1 mi awayMesa Verde MuseumA 1920s museum built from the same sandstone as the cliff dwellings.Sight · 0.1 mi awaySpruce Tree House OverlookA remarkably intact cliff dwelling tucked under a natural sandstone alcove.Sight · 0.2 mi awayChapin Mesa AmphitheaterA 1938 sandstone campfire circle above Spruce CanyonSight · 0.9 mi awayCedar Tree TowerAn unusual tower-and-kiva stop beside Mesa Verde's ancient terraces.Sight · 1.2 mi awayPithouseAn excavated early home with a floor plan you can read.Sight · 1.4 mi awayNavajo Canyon ViewA quick paved pause over a broad, sandstone canyon.Sight · 1.4 mi awaySquare Tower House OverlookA four-story cliff dwelling, seen from an easy roadside overlook.

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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