Wickiup Canyon Trail & Spring House

Wickiup Canyon is part of the Mesa Verde National Park backcountry in southwest Colorado. It sits between Navajo Canyon on the east and Long Canyon on the west, and normally can’t be seen from any of the normal trails or viewpoints. During the 2010 summer season, Wickiup Canyon is the middle segment of the 8 mile round trip ranger guided hike to the Spring House ruins site.

Near the junction of Spruce Canyon and Navajo Canyon, the trail veers up the west side of hidden Wickiup Canyon and climbs several hundred feet to the neck of Long Mesa before continuing on to the ruins site..

Though the trail through Wickiup Canyon has been lightly used in recent decades, it has history dating back to the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The stone work of that era was built to last, still holding up well over the years.

Wickiup Canyon doesn’t have any of the very large ruins sites for which Mesa Verde is most famous, but has several of the 600 Mesa Verde smaller alcove sites that are scattered in these deeply cut canyons. Near the mesa top is a well preserved appearing circular structure that is usually described as a storage granary.

The largest and most visible site is Buzzard House across the canyon. This site appeared to have easy access from the canyon floor and difficult access to the mesa top. The canyon floor in this area doesn’t look very wide or particularly suitable for farming, so one might wonder if this was a residence site or for some other purpose. The wooden supports for the upper floors stand out well in the afternoon sun.

Lower in the canyon, there are several small wall sections visible with binoculars. One of these sites is perched on the edge below a triangle face of desert varnish painted sandstone. The small sites in this area all look very difficult for the residents to access. In a couple of places high near the canyon rim, there are unexpected trees visible. You don’t expect to see an aspen or a cottonwood clinging to the cliff walls in this area, but there are some.

On our mid September hike it took 3:10 hours to arrive at the trailhead to the short descent below the rim down to Spring House. About half of the outward leg is spent on the climb up Wickiup Canyon and viewing the several points of interest on the way. About 2:00 hours were spent visiting Spring House and enjoying the provided lunch of a ham and turkey sandwich with chips, a piece of fruit, and a small bottle of juice. I carried 4 liters of water and needed most of it. The return hike took 2:00 hours for a total backcountry experience of 7:00 hours on a blue sky 80 F degree perfect day.

The Spring House hike, along with Mug House and Wetherill Experience, was one of three special backcountry hikes offered on the trial basis in 2010.

Spring House Trail

The Spring House Trail is one of three special backcountry hikes offered during the 2010 summer season at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. It is also offered in the 2011 fall season. For many years, hiking at Mesa Verde has been limited to the specific trails visiting the major Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites for which the park is famous.

The Spring House Trail starts at the Chapin Mesa Museum and begins by following the paved trail that leads to Spruce Tree House Ruin. A short distance before the reaching the canyon bottom, the trail head for the popular 2.4 mile Petroglyph Trail and Spruce Canyon Trail branches off.

The route to Spring House follows the Spruce Canyon Trail to the point where it turns from south to north, then continues south to the junction with Navajo Canyon, one of the major canyons in the Mesa Verde area. The descending trail toward Navajo Canyon is cool and lush with vegetation and the relative dryness and change in vegetation of the Navajo Canyon floor is noticeable.

There are three ruins structures near the canyon rims to spot with binoculars near the junction of Navajo and Spruce Canyon. To the south is Echo House and just above to the north a wall fragment of Teakettle House can be spotted. The most interesting is the Navajo Watch Tower, one of the mysterious towers perched on a peak of sandstone with a commanding view of the area.

These three structures can be spotted from the Petroglyph Trail if you scan from the right spots, but the views are better from below. An igneous rock dike is visible in the canyon bottom area here. Where the dike passes through the resistant Cliff House sandstone, a notch has formed that may have been a place to travel through the cliffs.

From the junction the trail leads up Navajo Canyon to the junction with Wickiup Canyon and starts climbing the slope on the west side of Wickiup toward the top of Long Mesa. In early June there were many wildflowers in bloom, so many that the trek nearly became a botany hike instead of a ruins hike.

We spotted a large cluster of Claret Cup Cactus, Scarlet and Rocky Mountain Penstemons, Evening Primrose, Globe Mallow, Cliff Fendler Bush, Tetranevris, Forget-Me-Nots and several of the small Mesa Verde endemic plants that were marked with small warning flags for their protection..the Cliff Palace Milkvetch.

To add to the botanical excitement, this hike had a surprise guest speaker. A researcher from an Ohio University was searching the area for potato plants and he actually found some and showed them to us.

Before you comment that this study is just small potatoes, consider that potatoes are only native to Peru and finding them here would mean that the trading network of the Ancestral Puebloans extended as far as South America. The key research question is when did the potatoes arrive here. The usual plants mentioned as cultivated in the Four Corners region are corn, beans, and squash, and now maybe potatoes.

The highlight ruins site along the Wickiup Canyon segment is Buzzard House, across the canyon from the trail about halfway to the mesa top. There were at least four other small sites to spot in this area. These small sites were hard to spot even with binoculars and were in locations that make you wonder how anyone could get there.

The trail arrived at the top of Long Mesa at a narrow neck, practically a knife edge, with great views up and down Long Canyon. It seemed surprising that Wetherill Mesa is just across Long Canyon and the Step House Trail is visible at the canyon’s north end. Spruce Tree House to Wetherill Mesa seems like a long trip if you are traveling by car, but would just be a morning walk if you are hiking. You could leave after breakfast and arrive in time for lunch.

Hiking north along the mesa top for a few minutes, there is a precarious overlook view of 20 ½ House. The odd name comes from the site numbering system used by one of the early investigators, this site having been missed and found later. This is a two level site and is another one to wonder about the difficult location.

The highlight Spring House was also below the rim and was reached with the help of two ladders, a few ropes, and a rocky jumbled trail. The views are all from a platform on the right side and the tour didn’t enter the site. Spring House has evidence for 23 rooms on the upper level and 68 rooms total.

Looking up canyon, it can be thought of as a near neighbor of Step House. There is a good seep spring at the back left side of the site and the structure includes some rare Mesa Verde columns that were built around the spring and support room structures above the precious water.

The group spent about 0:40 minutes viewing and discussing Spring House. There is some minor rock art that can be spotted with binoculars. The return 4 mile leg of the hike took 2:15 hours and the total tour of 8 miles took 8:40 hours. On the outward leg we spent a lot of time pausing and discussing the fabulous Mesa Verde landscape and enjoying this rare opportunity, even for the rangers, to spend a day in this environment.

The $35 cost included a lunch of a turkey, ham, and cheese sandwich, small bag of chips, small bottle of juice, an apple, and several granola bar snacks. It was a warm 80 F degree blue sky early June day and 1 gallon of water should be carried by anyone making this moderately strenuous hike. This is a great hiking opportunity that may not be available every year.