balcony house

My wife and I visited with two friends in June of 1982 and I can remember it as if it was yesterday. The climb up the ladder to access Baloney House was scary but the crawl thru the tunnel and climb up the ladders and stone face with only a chain to hold onto hundreds of feet above the valley floor will take all your courage.

We did this tour not well prepared in that we did not know what to expect and failed to take water and proper attire. In spite of that, am glad we did it but would not attempt again. Once thru the tunnel and thinking the worst is over, you have to climb a rock fave with a poorly anchored chain as the handrail. By this point, you are tired and it is challenging. I would not take children on this tour. There are plenty if other sites at MV for them to experince to understand the culture without taking unnecessary risks. Park rangers are very good.

This is one of the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings in which you actually get to get up close and personal with the dwellings. You have a ton of steps and ladders to maneuver and have to crawl at times to get to the site. But you can actually see and touch the dwellings up close.

This was a great experience! Not only hearing and seeing and actually being on a place with so much history, but also the crawling through tunnels and climbing ladders was lots of fun. Had a great time!

We really liked the history and the carvings. The views are awesome too. There is some climbing on this tour, which was fun too.

We were very lucky to get a tour guide who was very well versed in the areas history and about the ruins. She did and excellent job and everyone in the group was captivated by what she had to say about the ancient ruins.

We enjoyed this stop also. We'll worth seeing several of the cliff dwellings if you make the effort to get here.

What an interesting piece of history. I am terrified of heights but somehow managed to climb the 32 foot ladder to get inside balcony house. Don't miss this!

The balcony house is really interesting and a lot of fun because you need to go down stairs, through tunnels and up and down ladders to get into and out of it. So more like an adventure than a tour. For only $4 you get a ranger led experience with fantastic stories and lots of interesting information. Very well preserved and looked after it is a fantastic archeological site. They try to scare you off with the difficulty but it is really not as difficult as it sounds.

Disliked nothing enjoyed everything. Our Ranger guide was perfect for his job and gave us the best personal experience possible. David is a native of Colorado and had experienced Mesa Verde his whole life. What a gem. Some may be very reluctant to take this particular tour; do it, it's worth it.

Everyone must try to tour the cliff dwellings just once before they die! They are truly awe-inspiring...this one was beautiful, as are Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House! Our guide was wonderful!

The most exciting of the houses-the climb up a 30 foot cliff side ladder was amazing (they have a 100% successful climb rate ) The tour guide for this house was excellent and explained things very well!

Balcony House was tremendous. If you can climb an ordinary ladder you will do fine. I think they scare people away from this tour with all the talk of fear of heights, etc. there are some tight passages and the shirt crawl at the end. Great tour. We went at 2pm and enjoyed it in the shade

This wasn't the best looking site from a panoramic perspective, but definitely involves the most interesting trip to and back and has a somewhat more closed off, private feel to it. If you could only do one ranger guided tour, I would pick this one. I am not comfortable with heights or tight spaces, but have learned to deal with it over the years. If you cannot deal with heights or tight spaces, do not take this tour. It is not scary or difficult if you can cope with it, but I can empathize and the pressure of others waiting for you to go and the obstacles, could be too much for you. One person in our group became very panicky and there is no help for you once you're out there. You must press on. So think about yourself and others before you decided to go on this fun tour.

Highly recommended to take this ranger-led tour,and it is the only way to see the Balcony House up close. Ranger doing lecture about the structure and ancient history was great, very knowledgeable. Somewhat strenuous in activity. There were several ladders to climb, the highest being 32 feet. Very much worth the effort.