Wetherill Mesa Hike and Bike

Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado held a second Wetherill Mesa Hike and Bike day on October 9, 2010. Wetherill Mesa has the second largest concentration of Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites in the park, but is usually only open in the summer season between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

On this special day, the 5.4 mile paved tram road is open for hiking and biking to the several sites. Visitors park at the information kiosk as usual, and then set out on the tram road or the normal hiking trail.

One of the best opportunities is that the trail to the very large Long House ruins site is open for a leisurely visit. During the busy summer season, a $3 guided tour is the only way to visit this impressive site.

The hike along the tram trail to the Long House trailhead is about 0.75 miles and took me about 20 minutes. The trail leading to Long House descends below the canyon rim along stairs for another 0.75 miles with spectacular views of the Rock Canyon area.

Normally, visitors arrive on the tram and hike in groups of up to 60 with no opportunity to pause along the trail and take in the views or examine the Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper forest.

Two or three of the Park Rangers were stationed in Long House to provide information for the stream of visitors, but there was no formal presentation. During my visit there seemed to be about 20 visitors trickling in and out, well spread out in the large alcove. In early October, the lower sun angle puts more of the structures in bright sunlight. It was easy to stop and find viewing angles that are unobstructed and there is no pressure to keep moving with a group.

 Long House was excavated in 1959-61 as part of the Wetherill Mesa Archaeological Project, one of 15 sites worked on from 1958 to 1963. It is estimated that 150 to 175 people lived here from about 1200 to 1300 AD. The back of the alcove has several special features including the seep spring water supply, several vague pictographs, a collection of grinding stones, and a kiva with part of the roof still intact. Usually the line to climb the small ladder to view the interior of this kiva deters me from looking, but on the special day I finally had my chance.

 The landing area between the two ladders that lead to the back of the alcove provides a good overview of the featured plaza area. On the normal tour, visitors are focused on staying in line to climb the ladders and don’t notice this angle.

The plaza area has some of the features that are found in Great Kivas, such as those at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, or nearby Lowry Ruins, but isn’t enclosed by a wall and appears to have never had a roof. The regular tour gathers in the plaza and discusses the possible ceremonies, sometimes painting a picture of people even watching from the canyon rims as music and dances were performed.

After visiting Long House, I continued on the tram road to the junction at the trailhead for the Badger House Community and returned to the kiosk along the normal hiking trail. As part of the special day, a hamburger and chips lunch was available at the kiosk for $6. My hike and visit to Long House took 1:45 hours for about 3 miles of walking.

Long House Special Features

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.

Inscriptions at the ruins sites are of historical interest. As visitors enter from the left side, the Gustav Nordenskiold No 15 is easily seen. Nordenskiold was the first scientist to describe some of the sites in 1891. Despite the No. 15, Long House is one of the first sites that Nordenskiold worked on.

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.

Mesa Verde-The Five Large Alcoves

The large alcove cliff dwellings are the most compelling attractions of Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. There are 2000 archaeology sites in the park and 600 cliff structures, but there are five large and spectacular sites that are essential.

Two of the large alcoves that can be entered are on the Wetherill Mesa side of the park and can only be visited during the summer months between the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays. The Step House site trail head is near the parking area and tram loading area that provides transportation to the other Wetherill sites. Step House is a self-guiding trail with a ranger stationed near the site to answer questions.

A highlight of the Step House site is the side by side display of the pit house style of living with the later masonry pueblo style. Most pit house dwellings are on the mesa tops, but apparently some were also using the alcove sites. One of the mysteries of Mesa Verde is why was there a burst of alcove building in the era just before the entire area was abandoned.

One of the hidden sites of Mesa Verde and Wetherill Mesa is Mug House. There are no viewpoints for Mug House. Some special hikes were offered in 2006 for the 100 year anniversary of the park, but otherwise it rests unvisited (until 2010 when it was re-opened.).

Long House is the second largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde with 150 rooms, 19 kivas and a large central plaza. The Long House ranger led tour takes 1.5 hours and requires a $3 ticket from the Far View Visitor Center. After purchasing a ticket and driving to the parking area, there is a short tram ride to the trailhead. The final comments of the tour I took described a scene where large dances or ceremonies took place here with plenty of room for spectators along the canyon rim.

The other site in Mesa Verde that seems similar is the Fire Temple site visible from the Sun Point overlook along the self guiding Mesa Top Tour in the Chapin Mesa area. One of the other trails in the Wetherill Mesa area is the Long House Overlook Trail, where a wide view of the site is available.

The Spruce Tree House is the easiest of the large alcoves to visit and is really the center of Mesa Verde. In addition to being the third largest cliff dwelling with about 114 rooms and 8 kivas, the Chapin Mesa Museum is located at the trail head and there is a snack bar, book store and gift shop as part of the visitor facilities.

The paved trail leading to Spruce Tree House is open as a self guiding route during the mild parts of the year and is the only guided and free tour available during the winter months. The plants along the trail are identified with comments on their possible use to the people who lived here. Two 2.4 mile hiking trails, the Petroglyph Trail and the Spruce Canyon Trail also begin at the same trail head. If you only have time for a short visit to Mesa Verde, the Spruce Tree House area is the place to go.

Along with Cliff Palace and Long House, the Balcony House is one of three cliff dwellings that require a $3 ranger led tour to visit. Balcony House is often a highlight as it involves climbing ladders and crawling through a short tunnel. Balcony House is located along a loop road that includes Cliff Palace and the series of lookout points I call the House of Many Windows Trail or the Cliff Canyon Overlooks..

Balcony House is not a unique in its size but seems to be a possible special use site. It faces east rather than south and has more difficult access than most sites. The rarely visited Inaccessible House in the nearby Ute Mountain Park is another example of a possible special use site. Balcony House is open for tours from late April to mid October, a slightly shorter season than Cliff Palace. During the off season, the loop road is closed to vehicles but can be hiked.

Cliff Palace is the largest and most famous of the cliff dwellings ruins sites at Mesa Verde and in North America. The visitor season for ranger led tours of Cliff Palace is early April to early November with the road closing in winter but the overlook still open to hikers. If you visit Cliff Palace only, it appears to be an isolated site, but when viewed from Sun Point, across the canyon, it is seen as part of a very busy area. There are about 12 different sites visible from Sun Point, one of the stops on the Mesa Top Pithouse to Pueblo self guiding tour.

Long House Trail

The Long House Trail is on the Wetherill Mesa side of Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado.

This section of the park is only open during the summer months and has the second largest concentration of Ancestral Pueblo ruins in the park. Long House is the second largest cliff alcove site at Mesa Verde.
Long House can only be visited on a $3, 1.5 hour ranger guided tour. After arriving at the Wetherill Mesa parking area, visitors take a tram to the trail head. There is one stop on the paved trail leading down into the large alcove site. In addition to a discussion of the Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper forest environment a small water conserving check dam along a small drainage is pointed out.

Long House is one of the sites that early investigator Gustavf Nordenskiold visited in 1891 and he labeled this site No. 15, the carving still visible in the sandstone as the tour enters the site. Also visible on the way down are hand and toe holds that residents must have used to climb to the canyon rim.

The Long House tour includes visiting the back of the site after climbing two ladders. In the cool and shady back of the alcove there was a discussion of the advantages and reasons for building and living in the alcoves after centuries of living on the mesa tops. My favorite reason is the shelter from the hot summers and cold winters that the south facing alcoves provided.

There is a seep spring providing water at the back of the cave and small hollowed out basins where water could collect are visible. It is thought that construction started at the back of the site and expanded towards the front. There are also examples of grain grinding stones on display in the back.

There are 21 kivas at Long House, one still having part of the roof intact. There is a ladder to climb up and view inside. Standing in the elevated area at the back, the kivas seem to cascade down to the lower plaza area below. The kivas are thought to have been useful for winter protection and also served ceremonial purposes. There are a few small rock art pictographs along the back wall.

Among the 150 rooms at Long House there are some upper level storage areas. Looking up at these storage areas it is hard to see how anyone was able to get up there.

The last stop is in the large plaza in the lower front of the site. The ranger had the group close our eyes imagine the scene of a major dance ceremony taking place; drums playing, fires burning, viewers watching from the canyon rim, an exciting evening.

The 12 miles drive to Wetherill Mesa from the Far View Visitor Center has several pull over view points along the twisty road. At the three that are closest to the end of the road, small ruins sites are visible across the canyons. These smaller sites tend to get lost among the very large sites for which Mesa Verde is famous. One of the three is a tower that seems to sit isolated on the opposite rim, much like the Cedar Tree Tower in the Chapin Mesa area.