Manitou Cliff Dwellings

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings preserve a collection of Ancestral Puebloan stone rooms built into a red sandstone cliff above Fountain Creek, a few kilometres west of the main town. The structures date from roughly 1100–1300 CE, when the people archaeologists call the Ancestral Puebloans (previously known as the Anasazi) occupied the Four Corners region of the Southwest before a prolonged drought forced their abandonment of these settlements.

You can walk through the rooms, touch the walls, and get closer to these structures than is possible at the more famous sites in Mesa Verde National Park. The on-site museum covers the history of the Puebloan peoples with a mix of archaeological artefacts and dioramas. The location, tucked into a red-walled canyon, is dramatic even by Colorado standards. Open year-round; the site includes a gift shop and basic cafe.

things to do sight museum
A story
The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are not in their original location. They were moved here from Mesa Verde in the 1900s by Virginia McClurg and Lucy Peabody, who wanted to preserve Ancestral Puebloan structures that were being looted. The relocation was controversial — archaeologists objected that removing them destroyed their context — but it did preserve the buildings themselves.