{"id":35695,"date":"2023-02-16T18:23:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T01:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/snowstorms-again-close-down-mesa-verde-national-park\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:26:27","slug":"snowstorms-again-close-down-mesa-verde-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/snowstorms-again-close-down-mesa-verde-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowstorms again close down Mesa Verde National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b2f3f312-96fc-5448-8ec2-e4ea877d53cf&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" alt=\"Mesa Verde National Park closed down multiple days this winter because of heavy snow. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Mesa Verde National Park closed down multiple days this winter because of heavy snow. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The recent winter storm shut down Mesa Verde National Park for three days.<\/p>\n<p>The park has been closed Feb. 14-16 because of significant snowfall and unsafe travel conditions on the park road, according to a park Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p>Visitor are asked to check the park\u2019s Facebook page in the morning for updated conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Snow tires or traction devices will be required when the park opens. Visitors should expect snowpacked and icy road conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The park has closed at least eight days this winter because of heavy snowfall that created impassable and unsafe conditions on the twisting, 22-mile road into the park.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=2d4592ea-7efc-59b7-9aab-edd19b3c9e2e&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"720\" height=\"496\" alt=\"Mesa Verde National Park had a 14-inch base on Feb. 14, and it has snowed a foot since then. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Mesa Verde National Park had a 14-inch base on Feb. 14, and it has snowed a foot since then. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The park announced shutdowns Dec. 28, Jan. 1-2, Jan. 15-16 and Feb. 14-16.<\/p>\n<p>As of Feb. 14, the park had a 14-inch snowpack, said Tom Renwick, meteorologist with the National Park Service.<\/p>\n<p>On Feb. 15, the park entrance saw a foot of new snow, so it is likely 20 inches or so fell at higher elevations in the park, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The record for snow depth in Mesa Verde National Park for Feb. 16 is 30 inches in both 1978 and 1936, Renwick said.<\/p>\n<p>All the snow has created good snowshoe and skiing conditions at the park. There are trails at Morefield Campground, 4 four miles from the park entrance.  The Cliff Palace Road is also available for outdoor recreation. Park at the museum parking lot and take the connector trail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>shut down park for at least eight days this winter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,173,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mesa-verde-national-park","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83078,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695\/revisions\/83078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35695"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}