Sun Point Pueblo on the Mesa Top Tour

The Sun Point Pueblo is the sixth stop on the Mesa Top Pithouse to Pueblo Tour at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. This area of Chapin Mesa is part of the park that is kept open all winter. The road and short trails to the Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites are kept clear of snow and provide a hard surface for walking when other trails are muddy or snow covered.

I started my hike at the parking area for the third stop Square Tower House and visited the other sites toward the Sun Point View Point area. The sequence of ruins sites on the Mesa Top Loop traces the history of building styles in the Mesa Verde area from 600 to 1300 AD.

 In the winter season, there isn’t much traffic and this is a pleasant walk with thick Pinon Pine and Juniper forest on both sides of the road. The Sun Point Pueblo is partly sheltered in an open sided building.

The key feature of the Sun Point Pueblo is the Tower and Kiva combination in the center of the village. Surrounding the Tower and Kiva are the outlines of 15 rooms. The interpretive sign in the shelter has a diagram showing the entire site.

The Tower and Kiva combination is one of several that can be viewed at Mesa Verde. Cedar Tree Tower and Far View Tower, also on Chapin Mesa are similar. There is also an example on the Badger House Trail on Wetherill Mesa.

Sun Point Pueblo is missing much of its material and it is thought that some of it might have been moved to build the many alcove structures that are visible at the nearby Sun Point overlook. The Sun Point Pueblo is thought to have been occupied for only a short period of time, during the transition to the alcove sites

It is easy to overlook the room block outlines that are on both sides of the shelter building. It is thought that there may have been as many as 30 rooms here with a population of about 50.

On the way off the Mesa Top Loop I saw a coyote also strolling along the road. My hike on the Mesa Top Loop from stops 3 to 7 was on a sunny 40 F degree mid November day. There were patches of snow in shady spots in the forest. My hike took 1:30 hours for about 2 miles.

Sun Temple on the Mesa Top Tour

The Mesa Top Pit House to Pueblo Tour is a ten stop self guided tour that traces the development of building styles at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. During the busy summer, most visitors will move their vehicles between the stops.

In winter, the segment between the Square Tower House Overlook and the Sun Point Overlook is a 3 mile round trip hike on a hard surface that is cleared of snow and free from mud. One of the dozen or so ruins structures visible at Sun Point is the mysterious Sun Temple, visible on a point to the left of the famous Cliff Palace. It is another 0.5 miles of road past Sun Point to arrive at the Sun Temple.
 

Visitors enter the site from the west side and circle around to the south side. It is hard to see, but the overall structure is D shaped, has thick walls and most of the structure has a row of narrow rooms around the outside. On the south side, there is an indent in the wall with a small square opening on each side.
 

Looking in through the small openings, there are views on each side of the line of connected small rooms. There aren’t any apparent exterior doorways anywhere around the whole building.

Outside the southeast corner of the Sun Temple, there is a large circular tower. Along this same side, there is a good view of the Cliff Palace across the canyon.
 

There is a rock outcrop on the north side of Sun Temple that allows a view over the walls. On the interior, there is an open area with two circular kivas. No roof materials or household goods were found here, and it appears that this structure wasn’t completed before the entire region was abandoned around 1300 AD.

Square Tower House Overlook Trail and Pit Houses

The Square Tower House Trail is a 500 foot paved route to an overlook of the Square Tower alcove ruins site. It is the third stop on the Mesa Top Pithouse to Pueblo Tour at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado..

The Pithouse to Pueblo Tour is self guiding and visitors usually move their vehicles from stop to stop. During the winter months, the road and short trails are cleared of snow. The section from Square Tower to Sun Point, or further to Sun Temple, is a good hiking opportunity on a hard surface with little traffic.

It is thought that the site of Square Tower House was used as a resting and storage site very early in the human history of the Mesa Verde area. A storage pit was found here from the era when farming on the mesa tops was just beginning. Centuries later, after life on the mesa top was well established, the alcove was re-established as a residence site. At 28 feet tall, the Square Tower is the tallest structure in Mesa Verde.

The Square Tower site is thought to have been built and used during the years from 1200 to 1300 AD. About 60 of the original 80 rooms are still standing. There is a seep spring below the alcove that provided water. Square Tower has a little known neighbor to the north, around a corner called Little Long House that isn’t visible from a road side viewpoint. An unmarked side trail near the petroglyph on the Petroglyph Trail leads to a viewpoint.

My pictures of this site in the summer show more shade, while in winter the site gets full sun, just the way you would want it. For a hiker, there is the opportunity for a 3 mile round trip hike to the Sun Point area with several sites to visit along the way. (In 2011 and 2012 there have been ranger guided hikes down into the Square Tower House alcove. Use the label Square Tower House Guided Hike to find more info.)

These sites explain the development of living styles from the first pit houses to the large alcove sites visible at sun point. On a sunny winter day this is a very pleasant walk when the other trails are snow covered. In early February I walked on a sunny 30 F degree day with at least two feet of snow along the roadside.

The first permanent dwellings in the Mesa Verde region were the Pit Houses. These living spaces are numerous at Mesa Verde but only a few are developed for viewing along the trails. The Chapin Mesa Pit House to Pueblo Tour and the Badger House Trail on Wetherill Mesa have several exhibits under protective roofs that show the development of the early pit houses into the large alcove sites for which Mesa Verde is famous.

The pit house sites don’t look like much at first glance as they only show the pits and not the roofing or any of the artifacts of everyday life. The small opening between the two pits is the ventilation shaft, allowing fresh air in as the smoke from the fire pit rises and exits through the roof opening. The ventilation systems are among the many clever features that we see in the more advanced kivas. Sifting through the debris of these sites, charred materials are often found indicating that fires occurred here frequently.

The fourth stop on the Chapin Mesa Pit House to Pueblo tour shows the smaller pit to have been converted into the main living area after a fire. The same stop has an example of the beginnings of above ground room blocks. The pit rooms gradually became deeper and became the stone lined kivas that we see at the alcove and advanced mesa top sites.

The interpretive signs at these sites emphasize the religious and ceremonial nature of these excavated chambers, but when visiting here in February when the temperatures are below freezing and there is several feet of snow on the ground it seems that keeping warm would be the priority concern,

The Mesa Verde area was abandoned by about 1300 AD for reasons that are not clear. Among the reasons could be that by 1300, the large population here had used up all the winter fire wood. There was a burst of alcove building from 1200 to 1300.Viewing the many alcove sites at nearby Sun Point in winter, the alcoves are sunny and snow free while the mesa top is still frozen under deep snow.

The Anasazi Heritage Center in nearby Dolores, CO has a reconstructed pit house inside the museum. The construction details of the roof aren’t as clear as at Step House but the smaller sunken area in front of the pit house is well illustrated with some typical artifacts including pottery, baskets, an ax and a grinding stone.

There is a display of pictures that shows the experience of an archaeologists attempt to build a pit house today. It is mentioned that it took 8000 strokes with a stone ax to cut an 11.5 inch log. This seems to be about 12 hours of chopping per log.

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.