Mancos Canyon Tour in Ute Mountain Tribal Park

Near the Mancos Canyon Road entrance to Ute Mountain Tribal Park in southwest Colorado are several easy to visit Ancestral Pueblo sites. These sites are part of the typical half day tour offered here. The full day tour goes on to the Lion Canyon Trail to visit a series of four cliff dwellings.

The Old Visitor Center was used from about 1971 to 1981 with the prominent Chimney Rock looming overhead. At first glance I thought this was an old jail. The wooden door was very thick and solid. Ute Mountain Tribal Park is on the south side of Mesa Verde and is very lightly visited.
The Red Pottery Village is an unexcavated village site where a lot of red pottery has been found. There are displays of pottery shards and artifacts in the field among the rubble mounds.

This is one of the interesting features of the park, the visibility of these artifacts from a culture of more than 700 years ago. The artifacts are safe as all visitors are escorted by a guide.

Many Cliffs Ruins is a small site of small rooms tucked into the cliffs not far above the road. These small rooms sites are common in the region but are often overshadowed by the spectacular larger alcove ruins.
Chief Jack House site was the homesite of the last traditional chief of the Ute Mountain Utes and was the one who proposed the Ute Mountain Tribal Park around 1970.

There was initial opposition to the park and his house was burned down. The Pictographs at the site are thought to have been painted by Chief Jack himself.