Mug House Kivas

During the 2012 summer season, Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado is offering special hikes to the Mug House ruins site on Wetherill Mesa. These 2 mile round trip hikes are on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays between May 27 and September 2 and begin at 10:00 AM from the Wetherill Kiosk.

The cost is $25 and reservations are required. Group sizes are limited to 10. This hike was offered during the 2010 season but not in 2011.

It takes about 0:20 minutes of walking to arrive at the Mug House alcove. There are some minor sites to visit along the way. (See the post from 2010 that shows an overview of the hike, use the Mug House labels to find.)  Mug House has about 100 rooms and 8 kivas. The kivas provide some clues to the development of the site. On the left side of the site there are three kivas that can be viewed. 

We were able to climb up and stand between the second and third kiva. The second kiva is thought to represent the first occupation of the Mug House site. The kiva is thought to be associated with the room blocks that are on the ledges above.

Turning around, the third kiva is thought to represent a later construction. This one is notable for all the layers of plaster that are visible.

Both the second and third kivas have a keyhole shape, a recess in one end. The third kiva has three surface shafts visible. The one to the right is for ventilation and the one to the left is an entry. The middle one doesn’t have a apparent use. It looks like a small fire pit is in the corner of the walls.

The right side of Mug House is separate from the left side in that there are no internal passages. One of the right side kivas has an obvious double wall construction style.

Also on the right side is a kiva that seems to have an exaggerated keyhole recess. On a cold night the recess might be a good place to store firewood and other supplies.

There is another rounded square kiva on the right side that is too far back into the site to see. Mug House also has a tower structure at each end of the alcove. The Mug House hike takes 2:00 hours. Most of the overall time is in shade. There were seven hikers on the tour I took along with two Rangers. I carried one liter of water and snacks aren't allowed.

Badger House Trail on Wetherill Mesa

The Badger House Trail is a 0.75 mile one way paved route that visits four sites on Wetherill Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. These sites trace some of the development in architecture and living styles of the Ancestral Pueblo People who lived here until mysteriously vanishing around 1300 AD. There is a trail guide with 13 stops and there are also interpretive signs along the trail.

You can hike through the burned forest to the trail head for the Badger House Trail which is about 0.5 miles from the tram parking area. The Nordenskiold No. 16 Trail is in the same vicinity. The tram also stops at both ends of the trail.

The first stop on the trail is the Pithouse from about 650 AD. This structure marked the change in life style from nomadic hunting to permanent habitation. This example has a large room and an area that is thought to be for storage. These were covered over with a wood frame and plastered with mud. The entrance was through the roof.

The second site to visit is the Pueblo Village. From about 750 AD the storage rooms began expanding into several rooms. These structures were more adobe with the beginnings of rock masonry that developed later. This site has a Great Kiva where the soil layers tell some of its story. The size of this Kiva indicates that is was probably a center for a wider group of people that just this set of room blocks.

The Badger House site, the third of the four on this trail, has the longest kiva and tower tunnel connection yet to be found in the southwest.

The tunnel here extends for 41 feet. The connection of kivas with towers seems to be common but it is not known why. Current day Pueblo people still use kivas but not towers. The stone work here is thought to be from the 1200s.

The confusing arrangement of walls is explained as a site that was built on top of an older site. It is thought that much of the above ground material was moved elsewhere, maybe to Long House.

Two Raven House is the last site on the Badger House Trail. This site is thought to have been occupied from the 900s to the 1100s. It has two unusual features. There is a small circular room that resembles a miniature kiva. Some sites have great kivas but this is a rare mini kiva. There is also evidence for a fence built around the plaza area, maybe as a windbreak, or to fence in or out their domestic turkeys.

Hikers can return to the trailhead on foot or catch the tram at the end of the trail. There are two short overlook trails to Kodak House and Long House that can only be reached by riding the tram. Hiking from the Wetherill Kiosk and returning, without other stops took me 1:10 hours.

Wetherill Mesa Tram Trail

The Wetherill Mesa area of Mesa Verde National Park is usually only open in the summer months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, but on September 19, 2010 the tram road was opened for a special day of hiking and biking. This special day is among the new visitor activities in 2010 that have also included three new back country hikes.

The main attractions on Wetherill Mesa are the self guided tours at Step House and the four mesa top sites of the Badger House Community Trail along with the guided tour at the very large alcove ruins site Long House.

The tram usually provides transportation to these sites and the overlook to Kodak House and the trailhead for the Nordenskiold No. 16 Trail. Park Rangers were available to provide information and support for visitors biking and hiking the normally closed paved trail.

One of the highlights of this special day was that the trail to Long House was open for leisurely visits, with rangers stationed at the site to answer questions. Normally, Long House can only be visited as part of a guided tour, often in groups of 60 that need to keep moving to stay on schedule. Visitors could hike or bike the modest distance from the parking area to Long House and enjoy the canyon environment and large ruins site at their own pace.

Most of the 5.4 miles or so of paved tram road passes through areas that are recovering from the forest fire of 2000. The line between what was burned and what survived is often sharp. The recovering areas seem to have the colorful yellow flowers Rabbit Brush and the important Yucca plants growing along with grasses.

In some spots some small Junipers and Pines have started. It took me 2:00 hours to walk the tram loop without stopping at any of the major ruins sites except for the overlooks at Long House, Kodak House and the overlook area near Nordenskiold No. 16.

Part of the Wetherill Mesa festivities included a lunch special of a hot dog, chips, and cold drink for $5. It was a perfect 80 F degree mid September blue sky day and the parking area seemed to have as many vehicles as on a normal summer day.

Wetherill Experience Trail

The Wetherill Experience Trail is one of three special ranger guided hikes offered during the 2010 summer season at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. The hike is designed as a 6.5 mile, 6 hour tour of a combination of front country and back country Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites. My hiking group was small so we decided to skip the front country sites as they can be easily visited without a ranger guide. Visiting just the back country kept the hiking distance at 6.5 miles but shortened the time, welcome on a 90 F degree mid July day.

The hike begins at the Wetherill Mesa Kiosk and follows the existing front country trail and the tram road. There are two mesa top unexcavated rubble pile sites visible along the way that are not part of the Badger House trail and we stopped at one of them. The back country trail segment starts near the rubble pile site and provides some different views of Kodak House, one of the attractions along the tram road. Normally, the views of Kodak House are rushed as no one wants to delay the tram, but on this hike more time can be spent. This was the one front country site where we actually spent some time. Kodak House has 70 rooms and 6 kivas and is No. 22 among the Nordenskiold sites.

Part of the Wetherill Experience no matter which trail, is observing the effects of the forest fires from 2000. Passing slowly along the tram road, we noticed that some small Junipers and Pinon Pines had started growing in the burned areas.

The first back country site visited is known only as site No. 12. Watch your step as the view is from close to the Rock Canyon rim. This site has a surprising 26 rooms and 3 kivas. With binoculars there are petroglyph panels visible. My favorite Wetherill brother, John inscribed his initials JW here in 1891. JW’s initials can also be found at the right end of the Spruce Tree House site.

From the site No. 12 viewpoint, there is a pair of alcove eyes looking back across Rock Canyon. The eye to the right has a ruins site called Plank House, with 20 rooms and 2 kivas. The site No. 12 has a round tower on the left side of the site. One of the theories of the function of towers is for communication, so one could scan the area near Plank House for a tower to communicate with.

The highlight of the Wetherill Experience is Double House, located in an east facing side canyon of Bobcat Canyon. I was surprised how many of these sites I had never heard of. They don’t seem to be mentioned to in any of the typical Mesa Verde information.

Double House is considered to be spread out in 3 alcoves and has 70-75 rooms and 5 kivas. Double House is No. 14 in the Nordenskiold list and has a C Wetherill inscription. Daniel House is visible in the far distance from the Double House overlook. Daniel House is also visible in the far distance from the Spring House trail. North up Bobcat Canyon there is a thick grove of Douglas Firs.

From the Double House overlook it took 1:40 hours to return to the Wetherill Kiosk for a total hike of 4:30 hours. The front country Long House overlook could have been a final stop but we by-passed it as the Long House tour is one of the standard ranger guided $3 hikes. The cost of the Wetherill Experience hike is $35 and includes a sandwich, chips, juice, granola bar, and fruit lunch. I carried 4 liters of water and drank most of it. The Wetherill Experience hike is being offered on a trial basis in 2010 and includes sites that are rarely viewed by the public, so don’t miss this opportunity.

Mug House Trail

The Mug House Trail is one of three special hikes offered during the 2010 summer season at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. The hike is about 2 miles roundtrip and starts at the Wetherill Mesa kiosk, the same starting point for the popular Long House and Step House Trails.

The ranger led tour leaves the parking and kiosk area on foot and starts back north along the Wetherill Mesa road. To the east across a branch of Long Canyon, there is a distant view of a small ruin site known as Lancaster House. A short distance further there is an unmarked vague trail that descends west below the rim of Rock Canyon. The narrow somewhat overgrown trail bends back south toward the Mug House alcove. There aren’t any ladders on this hike.

There are two small alcove sites along the way to Mug House. Painted Cave has a few artifacts to view and has a large reddish pictograph snake, or maybe two snakes. A short distance past is Adobe Cave where there is a small partially excavated ruin.

This section of trail is very shady and cool. When the area was excavated several burials were found in these small alcoves. In the 2010 season, these special Mug House hikes are offered every day and start at 10:00 AM, avoiding most of the summer heat. The group size is limited to 14, much smaller than the groups of 60 that visit Cliff Palace. (This hike is being offered again in 2012 but on a three times per week schedule.)

The trail enters Mug House from the left side. The site was worked on in the early years with the idea that it would be open to the public, but has been only rarely visited before 2010. Retaining walls were built and the tour groups can enter the site to the same extent as most of the other major Mesa Verde tours.

Mug House has about 100 rooms with about 8 kivas, making it one of the larger sized sites in this park that features large sites. The alcove is about 280 feet long by 42 feet deep.

Like many sites, there are upper levels and there are noticeable differences in masonry styles. There is a circular thick tower at the left end. The far right end has a keyhole style kiva.

One of the kivas in the center of the site seemed to have some colorful plaster still in place.

The view from the right side includes the large boulder where the 1891 Gustav Nordenskiold No. 19 is inscribed. Though Mug House is in a different canyon, it is only a short walk to the No 21 site Step House.

The name Mug House comes from four or five mugs found bound together with cord though the handles. The ranger pointed out the small room to the right of the inscription boulder as the site where the mugs were found.

The tour didn’t continue past Mug House, but the water source for this site is a short distance further south and there is a 4000 gallon reservoir or cistern constructed there that collects runoff from the rim. Someone did a study of the runoff area and found the watershed to be 6 acres with check dams to control the silt content of the water.

The study found that water would have been produced about 40 times each year, for a total of about 15,000 to 20,000 gallons annually. That sounds like a lot, but if there were 80 people living here it is only 0.7 gallons per person per day. I carried 0.5 gallons just for this hike. The nearest spring is about 0.5 miles south near a site called Jug House, but there aren’t any viewpoints for Jug House.

The Rock Canyon bottom below Mug House is thought to be more fertile for farming than most other canyon bottoms in the Mesa Verde area. Most of the farming is thought to have occurred on the mesa tops, where the growing season is longer. It seems strange but the canyon bottoms have hotter summer temperatures and colder winter temperatures than the mesa tops. The Mug House tour takes 2 hours and the cost is $15. Tickets are available up to 2 days in advance in the bookstore section of the Far View Visitor Center. This is a special hike to a special site and should not be missed.



Wetherill Mesa Excavations Mug House, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

 

Step House Trail on Wetherill Mesa

The Step House Trail is a 1.0 mile mostly paved loop near the tram parking area on Wetherill Mesa on the western side of Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. Step House is one of the five large alcove ruins sites that can be viewed closely. 

The Step House Trail  is self guided with a ranger on duty at the site. The Wetherill Mesa area is only open during the summer months.

The tram provides transportation to the other trails and sites on Wetherill Mesa, but most can be easily reached by hikers on smooth easy trails. Step House can usually be visited in combination with the ranger tour of Long House. Step House sits in a short side canyon of Long Canyon.

On the canyon rim areas of the trail it is possible to scan with binoculars down Long Canyon and spot Spring House about 0.5 miles away. In 2010 and 2011 there were special hikes from the Spruce Canyon Chapin Mesa area to Spring House. The Spring House hike helps the visitor to understand how these sites are connected geographically.

There are 6 stops on the self guiding tour and a printed trail guide. The Step House site is unique at Mesa Verde because ruins from different periods are side by side under the overhang of the sandstone alcove. On the left as you arrive at the site are four Pithouses from the era of 450 to 750 AD. The pithouse was a step toward permanent habitation from the nomadic hunting and gathering. The pithouse later developed into the Kiva that was central to ceremonial activity and winter survival and is included in most of the pueblo villages.

This reconstruction is helpful for understanding how these structures were built. Mostly we see these kivas or Pithouses without roofs or with the roof complete. There are more pithouses to see on the nearby Badger House Trail.

Looking back from the pithouses are the primitive steps that the site is named for.

Climbing the short ladder allows a close view into the pueblo structure that dates from the 1200s. 

Just above the ladder there are some faded petroglyphs. Like many of the alcove sites, there are natural boulders that are built right into the structures.

 In the same area is a "No. 21" the number given to the site by Swedish investigator Gustaf Nordenskiold in 1891, shortly after the discovery of the cliff dweller sites by the local ranchers the Wetherill family. Looking closely at the No. 21, it looks like there is a faint WETH also scratched into the rock.

At stop 5 some of the original lintels are still visible above a small doorway. Looking through the opening, there are scratch marks on the wall behind that could be places where stone tools were sharpened.

Overhead at stop 5 there are several black Xs on the stone surface that are called Navajo Stars. I had to look for a long time before I could spot them. They have been found at other sites, mostly in Navajo territory, but there is no explanation for them.

On the exit trail there is another view of the primitive steps. For many of the cliff dweller sites in Mesa Verde it is often difficult to see how they got in and out of the precarious locations.

There are good views of the steps from the rim directly above the alcove and the lower part is visible near the pit house displays. The Step House Trail is also a botany trail with small signs identifying some of the most common plants. The effects of the 2000 Pony forest fire can also be seen.

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.