Oak Tree House on Fewkes Canyon Trail

One of the most eye catching of the several Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites visible from Sun Point is the Oak Tree House. During the summer of 2011, Mesa Verde National Park is offering ranger guided hikes to Oak Tree House and further on to New Fire House and the Fire Temple.

Oak Tree House has about 50 rooms and 6 kivas. The interpretive sign at the Sun Point overlook says that the sloping alcove floor was leveled using retaining walls and fill, and that every available square foot of area was used, including the ledge area above.

The one mile round trip trail begins at the Sun Temple on the Mesa Top Loop. The hike gets off to a fast start with hikers clinging to an installed rope and stepping carefully into carved footholds and descending a ladder to a ledge area. The ledge trail winds around the point under the Sun Temple and Mummy House.
 

Along the way there are views from below toward Mummy House and across Cliff Canyon toward Cliff Palace and Sunset House. Near the tip of the point there is a small seep spring that one of the water sources for this relatively highly populated canyon area.

The trail to Oak Tree House was mostly constructed in 1915 and was improved in the 1930s but has not been used much since then. There were a few hikes here in the 2006 Mesa Verde Centennial year. In the 2010-11 summer seasons some of these rarely used trails have been re-opened on a trial basis to public visits.

The kiva at the right end of the site appears to have been modified into a grain grinding room. Another Mesa Verde site where I’ve noticed an indoor grinding room is Coyote Village on the Far View Trail.
 

There is a lot of soot visible at Oak Tree House. The square opening on the upper left appears to be a well framed window. Most of the small openings that we think are windows are actually doorways, but this one appears to actually be a window.

Oak Tree House is being monitored for structural changes with small monitors that are visible. This device provides data for deciding if any action needs to be taken to stabilize the fragile walls.
 

On the left side of the site, a T shaped doorway is visible near other rectangular doorways. The building dates for Oak Tree House appear to be earlier than many of the other cliff dwelling sites. The dates here are 1184 AD to a construction stop in 1209 AD.
 

From Oak Tree House the hike continues a short distance to New Fire House and Fire Temple (see separate post for Fire Temple). After visiting there we retrace back to the trailhead. The hike is advertised as two hours but is a better experience if it lasts close to three hours.

Square Tower to Sun Point Lookout-Winter Hike

The Sun Point Trail is a segment of the Mesa Top Pit House to Pueblo tour on Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado.

On this self guiding tour most visitors move their vehicles to each of the ten stops, but during winter conditions this is a peaceful 3 mile round trip hike on a firm surface.

I started my hike at the Square Tower Overlook, a 500 foot paved trail and the second stop on the tour. This overlook views an alcove ruins site that features a four story square tower pressed against the wall of the alcove in Navajo Canyon. This site retains about 60 of an original 80 rooms. There is another ruins site directly across Navajo Canyon closer to the canyon rim.

There are three stops before arriving at Sun Point, the first of three view points across Cliff Canyon and Fewkes Canyon. This is one of the best ruins viewpoints in the region as about 12 Ancestral Pueblo Ruins sites are visible here.

The largest and most eye catching from Sun Point is Sunset House. To the left of Sunset House are two smaller sites and then Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dweller site in Mesa Verde. There is another site down canyon to the right, visible with binoculars, that isn't mentioned in the interpretive information at the overlook.

Moving to the left side of the same overlook, there are views across the canyon junction toward the large alcove Cliff Palace, the Sun Temple on the mesa top, and Mummy House below the Temple and below the canyon rim. A reliable water supply in this area made it an attractive area for these numerous cliff dwellings.

A short distance further is the Oak Tree House overlook. Oak Tree House has a retaining wall at the front of the site and the area behind the wall filled in to level the floor.

This site has 50 rooms and six circular kivas. All of these sites face the south. In late February these sites are snow free while the north facing side of the canyon still is snow covered.

Just past Oak Tree House is the Fire Temple. This site has an area to the left that is thought to have been used only for ceremonies, as it shows no features associated with habitation. To the right is a split level site cliff dwelling called New Fire House.

It took me about 1:00 hour to hike from Square Tower to the Fire Temple overlook including all the stops, and 40 minutes to return. I only saw two or three other visitors on a sunny 50 degree day in late February. From the Fire Temple it is another 0.6 miles to the Sun Temple.