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Open from 8:00 A.M. to sunset, the Cliff Palace Loop drive takes you past Cliff Palace, Balcony House and two overlooks to the cliff dwellings in the canyon below. You may enter either cliff dwellings by ranger-guided tour only. Purchase tickets for tours at Far View Visitor Center before going to the site. The Balcony House tour begins from the benches under the shade ramada at the Balcony House parking lot.

___Discovery___

A prospector, S. E. Osborn, first entered Balcony House in the spring of 1884. His name and the date March 20, 1884, have been found in a dwelling in lower Soda Canyon. In a newspaper article published late in 1886, Osborn describes some of the sites he visited in the Mesa Verde in 1883- 1884. The description of one matches the likes of Balcony House, and there is very little doubt that he did enter it.

Jesse Nusbaum excavated Balcony House in 1910. Nusbaum was not only an accomplished archeologist, he was also one of the first Superintendents of Mesa Verde National Park.
The Balcony House tour requires people to descend a 100 foot long staircase into the canyon to get below the dwelling, climb a 32 foot tall ladder, crawl through a 12 foot long tunnel, and then climb an additional 60 feet on ladders and stone steps. The Balcony House tour is one of the most challenging in the park.

Return to the Southwest
https://pbase.com/shaunwin/southwest

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