Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Mancos Canyon Tour-Kiva Point Trail

The Kiva Point Trail in Ute Mountain Tribal Park,  in southwest Colorado is a short route just off the gravel road in the Mancos River Canyon near the Highway 491 entrance to the park.


Kiva Point is part of the regular tours at Ute Mountain. Both the half day and full day tours normally stop here. The Sun Calendar Tour in late May also stops here.


Ute Mountain Tribal Park requires all visitors to be escorted by a guide and one of the benefits of this system, as opposed to the mass system at nearby Mesa Verde, is the numerous collections of pottery shards and artifacts that are on display in the areas where they were found.


Among the highlights of this trail are the several panels of rock art petroglyphs on the sandstone cliffs a short climb from the road.


The interpretation of these drawings is usually a mystery though current day Pueblo People often have some insights.

The Kiva here is unexcavated and appears as a large circle with scattered rubble. This site was a fairly large village area not far from the Mancos River, a modest sized stream that flows out of the nearby LaPlata mountains. There is an identified dancing ground near the site, along with collapsed towers and a possible three story pueblo.


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