Long House is the second largest of the Ancestral Pueblo alcove ruins sites preserved in Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado.
It is located along Rock Canyon in the Wetherill Mesa portion of the park. Long House can be visited on a $3 ranger guided 1.5 hour tour during the summer months between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The site is accessed by a tram that departs from the Wetherill Mesa Kiosk near the parking area.
The spectacular setting, 150 rooms, 21 kivas, and unusual large central plaza are the most eye catching features, but there are some other special details to watch for. Cool…good stuff..as Ranger Ellen described it.
Long House is the only Mesa Verde site where the visitor can linger in the back of the alcove. Two of the special features are nearly side by side. Like Balcony House, there is a seep spring source of water trickling out from the junction of sandstone and an impermeable layer of shale.
Looking past the growing plants, there are small bowl shapes hollowed out, large enough to dip out a pottery mug full. Adjacent to the right end of the seep spring, there are ripple marks, evidence that this area was once covered by a vast inland sea.
High on the right side of the site, above the central plaza, there are prayer sticks inserted into cracks in the sandstone. Despite the spiritual term, these seem to have some practical value. If the rock shifts enough to cause the sticks to fall, it is a warning that a slab of rock might soon follow.
The geological process that causes alcoves to form also causes a danger if you choose to live in one. Prayer sticks are often mentioned at various ruins sites in the Four Corners area, but Long House is one site where they can be spotted.
In 1991, photographers took a series of pictures from the same angles as Nordenskiold and published a small “then and now” book that is available at the Wetherill Mesa Kiosk. The book is called "Photographing Mesa Verde: Nordenskiold and Now". Nordenskiold's report on his time at Mesa Verde is called "The Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde."
On my way out to Wetherill Mesa on July 8, 2010, at 9:15 AM, I spotted a yearling Black Bear at about the 3 mile marker. The half grown bear tumbled down the Gambel Oak hillside from the right, stopped in the middle of the road and looked back at me for a few seconds, then scrambled downhill to the left. Mesa Verde acts as something as a wildlife refuge, home to bears and even mountain lions, and it’s good to make such a rare sighting.
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