Mesa Verde - Pithouses and Pueblos

Date Added: 4th Sep 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a stop on the Mesa Top loop drive that comprises two excavation sites. It explores the deevelopment of late Basketmaker pithouses into jacal dwellings and eventually into masonry room blocks with proto-kivas.

Access is via a parking pull-off and handicapped-accessible paved walkway.

Mesa Verde - Mesa Top Sites

Date Added: 1st Sep 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: One of the better outdoor exhibits at Mesa Verde describing how Ancestral Pueblo architectural styles evolved between 900 and 1075 CE on mesa top sites. This is a stop on the Mesa Top loop drive with a parking pull-off and handicapped-accessible paved walkway to the excavated sites with interpretation.

Mesa Verde - Cliff Palace

Date Added: 22nd Aug 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5

Log Text: Much has already been written about this, the largest, most magnificent of the Pueblo 3 cliff dwelling sites at Mesa Verde, so I won't rehash it here. Only to say that I opted to view the site from two overlooks due to bad weather and time constraints. In 2025, ranger-led tours commenced the first week in May, in fact the day before I had to return home. Next time...

You can get a great remote view of the site from an overlook at the Sun Temple and an even closer look at an overlook on the Cliff Palace driving loop via a short trail.

Mesa Verde - Sun Temple

Date Added: 12th Aug 2025
Site Type: Ancient Temple Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This and one of the Cliff Palace overlooks are the last stops on the Mesa Top Loop drive. This structure is unique within Mesa Verde as far as I know and there are many theories as to its purpose. Unfortunately there is no access to the interior of the complex, so you have to stand on a ledge outside the wall to get any view at all of the inside. However, there is a standalone circular structure outside the main building that you can approach at close range. The mortar capping on the tops of the walls was done by the NPS, presumably as part of the preservation effort, and is not prehistoric.

There is a very large parking pulloff and the temple is no more than a 100 yd walk from there.

Mesa Verde - Fire Temple

Date Added: 11th Aug 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4

Log Text: This is actually two sites. The Fire Temple is what is believed to be a purely ceremonial structure. The New Fire House is adjacent and thought to be a cliff dwelling site for the caretakers of the temple. Both are late Pueblo 3 structures and not open to public visitation. However, they can be viewed remotely from the Fire Temple and New Fire House Overlook on the Mesa Top Loop drive.

Mesa Verde - Sunset House

Date Added: 11th Aug 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3

Log Text: A Pueblo 3 cliff dwelling site in Cliff Canyon. As far as I know, public visitation is not allowed, but the site can be viewed from the Sun Point Overlook across the canyon.

Mesa Verde - Oak Tree House

Date Added: 6th Aug 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4

Log Text: I didn't actually visit the Oak Tree House site itself but viewed it remotely from the Oak Tree House View across the canyon. All of my images were captured from that overlook, which is a short walk from a paved parking pull-off on the Mesa Top Sites driving loop.

Sun Point Pueblo

Date Added: 6th Aug 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: A late mesa-top Pueblo 2 small village site that was occupied for a short period of time before most of the inhabitants built and moved to the cliff dwellings. The remains of this site consist of a kiva and tower inside a metal shelter (for preservation). Foundations of the 30 or so room blocks surround the building.

Access is via a very short trail from a nearly parking pull-off on the Mesa Top Sites loop road.

Mesa Verde - Square Tower House

Date Added: 18th Jul 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: This is a cliff dwelling from the Ancestral Pueblo 3 period featuring the tallest tower structure still standing in the park. There are two ways to see the cliff dwelling. Remotely, from an overlook at the canyon rim. Or much closer, via periodically scheduled ranger-led hikes into the cliff dwelling complex itself. I opted for the overlook view, as they were just starting the guided tours (around the end of the first week in May in 2025).

Parking at the trailhead is available about 1/2 mile south of the Pithouse stop on the Mesa Top Loop road. The paved trail to the overlook is about 600 ft long and provides a nice view of the complex.

Mesa Verde - Pithouse

Date Added: 18th Jul 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is the first stop on the Mesa Top Loop, a one-way driving loop featuring actual excavated sites with interpretation that cover Basketmaker 3 through Pueblo 3 cultural periods.

The Pithouse stop is about a mile south of Chapin Museum and Spruce Tree House overlook. The actual pithouse is less than 100 ft south of the parking pulloff under a shelter, accessible via a paved foot path.

Mesa Verde - Cedar Tree Tower

Date Added: 14th Jul 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This site is at the end of a paved side road heading east from the main park road. The side road is approximately 5 miles south of the Far View Community site and a 1/2 mile north of the Spruce Tree House overlook and Chapin Mesa Museum.

The side road leads in about 1/2 mile to a dead end loop with on-street parking. The tower and kiva are located right next to the parking loop.

Mesa Verde - Spruce Tree House

Date Added: 13th Jul 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Visited in May 2025. Unfortunately, this cliff dwelling from the Pueblo 3 period, probably the best preserved of all the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, has been closed to visitation since 2015. A portion of the alcove overhang collapsed, creating a serious safety issue, and forcing the closure ever since. There have been ongoing efforts to determine how to best stabilize the site for future visitation.

Meanwhile an overlook behind the Chapin Museum provides excellent views and interpretation of the cliff dwelling. The area is still well worth a visit. The short 100-200 yd path to the overlook is paved and I believe is wheel chair accessible.

Mesa Verde - Far View Tower

Date Added: 13th Jul 2025
Site Type: Ancient Temple Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is likely another small Ancestral Pueblo village site in the Far View Community consisting of multiple room blocks and kivas. After the initial construction and occupation, a tower was later built over one of the original kivas.

Access is via a 100-200 yd flat foot path that heads north from the loop road near Far View House. On-street parking is available on the Far View loop road.

Mesa Verde - Megalithic House

Date Added: 12th Jul 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: This site is sbout 100-200 meters north of Far View Reservoir via a flat walking trail. It is a partially restored classic unit pueblo, probably occupied by a small family or clan, and consisting of 8 or 9 rooms plus a well-preserved kiva cut into bedrock.

The site is sheltered under a metal roof and includes interpretation.

Mesa Verde - Mummy Lake

Date Added: 12th Jul 2025
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: This site is part of the Far View community of Ancestral Pueblo sites in Mesa Verde National Park. The structure, a large depression with earthen embankments reinforced by stone revetments in some parts, was originally thought to be a manmade water collection and reservoir area, likely built in the Pueblo 2 period. There is a ditch leading out the south side of the structure. It is in fact now called Far View Reservoir, rather than its original name of Mummy Lake.

However, this interpretation has been called into question and the purpose of the structure remains controversial.

It is accessible via a 1/4 to 1/2 mile flat walking trail north about midway down the access road to Far View House. Parking is available on the side of the road or at the dead end near Far View House.

Mesa Verde - Coyote Village

Date Added: 24th Jun 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: My favorite of the Far View community sites, as public access is allowed in the interior of the village site, so the kivas and room blocks can be examined at very close range (in contrast to Far View House, at least in May 2025). It's in good to excellent condition and was excavated in the late 1960's - much more recently than many of the structures in Far View.

Access is via an easy 800-1000 ft trail that departs SW from the parking loop rd near Far View House.

Mesa Verde - Pipe Shrine House

Date Added: 22nd Jun 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Pipe Shrine House is an Ancestral Pueblo village built just 100 yds south of the Far View great house and consists of approximately 20 room blocks, a large interior kiva, and what appears to be a circular room next to the kiva that may have been a tower. The village was built and modified between 900 and 1300 CE, so it spans the Pueblo 2 and 3 periods. There is some debate as to whether this site was purely ceremonial or served as a homestead for villagers farming the mesa top. (or both!). More in Comments section.

To get there, see the visit log for Far View House as the directions are the same. Pipe Shrine House is but a 100 yd walk south from the great house. The interior of the room block site is off limits to visitation; however, the surrounding area is at enough of an elevation that you can get a good sense of the overall architecture. The kiva however is difficult to see well given the access restrictions in May of 2025.

Mesa Verde - Far View House

Date Added: 22nd Jun 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a Chacoan style great house from the Pueblo 2 period (950 -1150 CE). Like most great houses, it served as a community center for ritual and social activities. It also possibly was used as a central storage point for harvested produce.

The people lived in room blocks in small villages dispersed around the great house. There were at least 50 villages in Far View, of which a handful have been excavated and restored and can be visited today.

To visit the Far View great house and village structures, drive approximately 2 miles south of Far View Terrace Cafe on the main park road and turn left onto a side road. Oddly for such a major site it is not well marked. The side road ends in a loop. Parking is limited to wherever you can pull off the road in various pullouts. There's no real parking lot !

The great house is steps away from the dead end loop.

Unfortunately, when I was there, the great house had a number of tarps strewn over parts of it and it looked like they were doing some restoration or maintenance. Most of the inside was roped off and closed to visitation. I don't know if this is always the case. But it was difficult to take any photos other than of the outside walls. A raised observation platform would have been helpful.

Spirit Cave Ruins

Date Added: 19th Jun 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 2

Log Text: As is the case with Five Kiva Ruin nearby, you can either view the site from an overlook or take a roundabout "trail" around the lip of the top of the canyon and scramble down some ledges to the canyon floor. The ruins are a short walk from and at the same level as the canyon floor.

To get to the parking area from Blanding, head south on US-191 for 4 miles and turn west onto UT-95 toward Natural Bridges National Monument. From the US-191/UT-95 intersection, aka Shirttail Junction, measure 1.7 miles and turn right onto unpaved San Juan County Road 288 aka Warren Allen Rd. This road may not be marked with a sign!

Continue on CR 288 for 0.4 miles and turn right at the first road junction. From here the road gets a little rougher. Careful drivers in passenger vehicles might have little or no trouble but if in doubt there is a parking pulloff to the left at this intersection. Drive (or walk) another 0.3 mile to a large cleared area on the right. Park here. The coordinates for this spot are 37.58524, -109.51625.

Walk down the hill east to a big semicircular ledge. The alcove containing the ruins is under this bench. To view it remotely, simply walk to the right along the lip of the canyon about 100-200 yds and the ruins will come into view down inside the alcove on the left.

I chose to hike to the canyon floor and access the alcove and ruins at close range. There is no official trail to the canyon floor but a network of social paths that I would call easy to moderate. Walk to the left about 200-300 yds and follow the canyon lip around to the east. Take the easiest way down that you can find. There may be a small amount of scrambling needed around rocks but it is a very short descent to the bottom. At the canyon bottom, turn right and head west about 200 yds towards the alcove and the ruins.

Five Kiva Pueblo Ruins

Date Added: 19th Jun 2025
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 2

Log Text: The site can be viewed remotely with binoculars or photo zoom from an overlook on the mesa top via a short path from the trail head. A number of web sites say that you can also hike an "easy" trail from this point down into the canyon floor and west up the other side to the alcove to get very close to the ruins. However if there was a single trail, it wasn't obvious to me. It was more of a steep scramble network of paths around boulders and ledges that I would rate as moderately difficult except maybe for a youngster ! In any case I didn't have the time and opted to stay at the overlook.

To get to the trail head from Blanding, take Route 191 from its junction with E 500 St south and take a right onto Ruins Rd. Follow Ruins Rd 1.7 miles to its unpaved dead end. There is a metal sign for the trailhead on the right with some rock steps and a pipe railing. The overlook is approximately 100 ft down the ledge.