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.