Explore Mesa Verde National Park, and take home Ken Burns

If the buzz over Ken Burns’ soon-to-air new documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” has you clamoring for some time in public lands, head to southwestern Colorado for a truly unique adventure. Near the Four Corners, Mesa Verde National Park is a World Heritage Site holding, among its 4,000 known archaeological sites, incredible cliff dwellings built by the ancestral Puebloans.

But if you’re worried a trip to a remote park such as this might hinder your dedication to the viewing of the six-part Burns series, the in-park Far View Lodge (operated by concessionaire Aramark) has a solution: You can have your exploration and watch it too.

Deal: The “America’s Best Idea” lodging package at Far View Lodge costs $349, pre-tax, and features the following: two nights in a standard room; two tickets for a half-day ranger-guided tour of the park’s sites and cliff dwellings; and a full DVD set of “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” documentary.

How much will this deal save you? The DVD set is valued at approximately $100. The half-day tours are normally $45 per adult. And a standard room without the package extras at this time of year runs about $118 per night (pre-tax). Thus, the package represents a savings of about $77.

When: This offer is valid for stays now through Oct. 21, 2009, and April 22-June 6, 2010.

Caveats: The $349 rate does not include meals, tips or your entrance into Mesa Verde National Park. The latter costs $10 per vehicle and is good for seven days. May 28-29, 2010, are blackout dates.

Tested: I found the online reservations system slow and rather confusing, and I could not seem to pin down any pricing for the dates I tried. I recommend calling in your reservation instead. I called to inquire about a trip during the last weekend of September, and the reservations agent quickly found availability.

Contact: ARAMARK, (888) 896-3831

— Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. Credit: Steve; Your Scene / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 3:43 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under Arts & Culture, Colorado, Deals, Hotels, National Parks, Rocky Mountain States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.