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 the south side of Mesa Verde and is 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. The museums in the area say that the center of red pottery production was in southeast Utah and the Kayenta area of northeast Arizona, and any found near Mesa Verde would have been traded in.
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. Across the canyon in this area a Hovenweep like tower is visible but the tour doesn’t go over to it.
Many Cliffs Ruins is a small site of small rooms tucked into the cliffs not far above the road. These small rooms are common in the region but are often overshadowed by the spectacular larger alcove ruins. Directly below the larger ruin and left of the smaller one there is an example of one of the Sun Calendar petroglyphs. There is a spiral and a grid that measures the movement of the sun, but it is hard to see from the road without binoculars.
About 200 yards back to the west of this site there is another petroglyph and pictograph panel with a trail up the cliff that allows a closer view. It may depend on who the tour guide is for the group to visit there.
There are many handprints, some broad shouldered figures and a footprint petroglyph. Occasionally there are special hikes that focus on the Sun Calendars along the Mancos Canyon. Usually the Sun Calendar hike is in late May.
The Chief Jack House Site was the home site of the last traditional chief of the Ute Mountain Utes and he 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. The short Kiva Point Trail is also part of the Mancos Canyon Tour. There are easy to see petroglyphs and a large unexcavated Great Kiva.
The final stop in Mancos Canyon is the Kiva Point. (Kiva Point has a separate post with more pictures.)
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