Nordenskiold No. 16 Ruin Trail

The Nordenskiold No. 16 Ruin Trail is a 1.0 mile round trip to an overlook of the alcove protected structures. It is an additional 0.5 miles walking to the trailhead from the tram parking area on Wetherill Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado.


There is a good trail guide for this route, with numbered stops, that describes in detail the surrounding Pinon Pine and Juniper forest, and many of the plants and their ethnobotanical uses by the Ancestral Pueblo and the wildlife.

Unfortunately, much of this area was burned over during the 2000 Pony forest fire. Stop No. 3 on the guide describes how such fires help maintain a healthy and vigorous forest.

The No. 16 Ruin was occupied during the 1200s and sits in the layer called the Cliff House Formation sandstone. It has about 50 rooms and has a two level structure.

Gustaf Nordenskiold was a visiting Swedish geologist and paleontologist who undertook the first systematic study of the Mesa Verde cliff dwellers in 1891, paying one of the Wetherills $3.00 per day as his guide.

The Wetherills were ranchers from nearby Mancos, CO who had first stumbled onto the sites while rounding up stray cattle, or so it is said. Another version has it that the local Ute Indian Chief led the Wetherills to the sites.


Nordenskiold didn't spend much time at this site as it didn't have the artifacts he was interested in. He later took nine crates of material back to Europe with him.

This brazen act outraged other pot hunters and led to the passage of the 1906 Antiquities Act so that no one would get away with this again, at least not a European. The nine crates of treasures are now on display in the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki.

The site we see today is the result of a program of stabilization that began in the 1940s. Walls and other features are strengthened to prevent further collapse. Hikers visiting the No. 16 site will probably also hike on to the Badger House Trail, a short distance away.