Eagle's Nest House on the Lion Canyon Trail

The highlight site on the Lion Canyon Trail in Ute Mountain Tribal Park in southwest Colorado is the spectacular Eagle's Nest House. It is the fourth of four cliff dweller sites along the three mile trail.

Eagles Nest is thought to be a 15 room and 1 kiva site. The exciting part of visiting this site is getting to it.
The trailhead is reached after a 40 minute ride on gravel roads. Then, a climb down three ladders into Lion Canyon, and hike 1.5 miles along a rough trail.

The first challenge is to climb the 30 foot ladder. The guide made a point of saying that this climb was optional. Six of our group of eight made the harrowing climb.

After reaching the top, there is a fairly narrow and low ceiling ledge to travel. I kept as far to the right as I could, ducking low and not looking over the edge.

The posts sticking out horizontally of the structure probably supported a small balcony, similar to Balcony House in Mesa Verde. It's hard to imagine anyone sitting on the balcony, dangling their legs over the deep canyon.
Creeping slowly and deeper into the site, we could peer into the circular kiva, some of its structures still intact after 700 years. We could creep further and look through the openings past the kiva. Then backtrack along the narrow ledge and the long ladder, to the relative safety of the primitive trail.