Balcony House was built by a group of people called the Ancestral Pueblo about 800+ years ago.  Many people still call this group the “Anasazi”, but according to park rangers, the term Anasazi is actually an offensive term to Native American groups because it means something along the lines of “ancient enemy” or “enemy ancestors”.  They do not want to refer to their ancestors as enemies.  So the term Ancestral Pueblo is the term we use now.

The Balcony House tour was highly recommended to me by several park rangers when I made a stop at the Visitor Center.  It was my first time to Mesa Verde National Park, so I figured: why not!

Balcony House tour is so named because it’s located right on a rock ledge that looks like a balcony.  This tour requires stooping, crouching, climbing a 32 ft ladder, and even some crawling at points through a 12 ft by 18 inch tunnel.  That being said, there were people of all ages on this tour, but you will be required to do all of that.

The tour begins at the parking lot and you wait until your tour guide, a national park ranger, comes and asks to see your tour tickets.  The ranger will gather everyone together and give a quick orientation session of what is expected and what is required for the tour.  You are only allowed to bring water on this tour.   After a quick history lesson, we were led down the cement path to several gates that lead to Balcony House.

As mentioned above, you will be required to climb this ladder.  Our guide, had us climb up two at a time.

Once we got to Balcony House, our guide gathered us together to point out some fascinating parts of the ruins.  Many of these ruins have been rebuilt or stabilized to support people visiting.  You will need to be self-aware during this tour and pay attention to where you touch and step.  Right after our guide finished saying “do not touch anything except the few parts I point out,” there were people already leaning up against walls, touching everything, and even stepping on things they shouldn’t.  Please be mindful as you are on this tour.

Balcony House has many features that make it a great defensible position.  There are even some choke points so only one person can proceed one at a time.

Someone from our group asked where the Ancestral Pueblo would have space to plant crops.  The ranger said that the top of the mesa was filled with farms, pit houses, dams, and people going about daily life.   The cliff dwellings were used as, well, dwellings.  You can see many examples of daily life through the grinding stones, kivas, living areas, and more.  There are 40 rooms at Balcony House!  It’s pretty incredible to be walking in the same place that people did 800+ years ago!

At the end of the tour, we were forced to crawl through one of the defensive choke points to the parking lot.