Menhir du Moustoir

Date Added: 13th Dec 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 1st Sep 2024. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: There are three menhirs near the Moustoir Tumulus. This is the western menhir in a small field across the dirt road which separates it from the western edge of the tumulus. See Moustoir Tumulus visitor's log for parking; it's the same for the menhir.

Menhir du tumulus du Moustoir

Date Added: 13th Dec 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 1st Sep 2024. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: There are three menhirs near the Moustoir Tumulus. This one is on top of the tumulus at its eastern end. It requires a very short but steep climb up the tumulus slope to access the top. Parking is the same as for the Moustoir Tumulus; see the visitor's log for that entry.

Note: This was the end of my Sept 2024 tour in the Carnac area. Hope to return to France in fall 2025, to visit sites in Finistere.

Menhir La Motte de Beurre

Date Added: 19th Nov 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 1st Sep 2024. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Parking is problematic as the menhir is located in a small park squeezed in between two houses in a densely packed residential alley. My solution was to park farther south where the alley widens to a real street near the Chapelle St Michel with on-street spaces. It is not a long walk from there to either Mane Rethuel Dolmen or the menhir.

The menhir is broken with the base still in the ground and the other half recumbent. It was originally 7.4 m in length, including the part below ground level. One face of the base has engravings but they are darkened with age and hard to see.

Menhirs de Keriaval

Date Added: 5th Oct 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 1st Sep 2024. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Located 3 or 4 menhirs of the original 8 in a field about 50 m south of the passage grave along the trail. The area is fenced off and discourages further exploration.

Menhirs de Mané er Hroëck

Date Added: 22nd Nov 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 1st Sep 2024. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: I looked for the two menhirs described in the text and at the location given. Didn't definitively find either of them. However I did find a standing (actually leaning) menhir about 60 mtrs south of the location that didn't really look the same as the original photo (see my photo). The whole site looks quite different now with extensive lawn mowing and clearing of the grounds, so it's still possible that it's the original standing menhir with a lot of the overgrowth removed.

Menhirs le Vieux-Moulin (N)

Date Added: 30th Sep 2024
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 1st Sep 2024. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: There is a signpost "Vieux Moulin" off the D781 that is easy to miss. A dirt road leads a couple hundred meters past a house to a small hill. Park here. The menhirs are a very short easy walk east or south from there.

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 - 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 - 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.

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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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.

Metcalfe Mounds

Date Added: 2nd Mar 2025
Site Type: Artificial Mound Country: United States (The South)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 1st Feb 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3

Log Text: This Mississippian mound falls into the same category as a number of others that can only be viewed from long range, e.g. Leland, Stoneville, and Mayersville. All are privately owned and on either agricultural land or large compounds set far back from the nearest public road. Unless permission is secured by the landowner, be prepared to shoot photos or videos from 1/4 to 1/2 mile away.

The best viewing spot I found was about at the midpoint of Metcalf Road which lies about 1000 ft west of the mound. There are no shoulders for safe parking so I had to park on a nearby field (dirt) road and walk about 100 ft.

The mound is on a farm just to the east of a large tan shed (see images). It is in good condition.

Moab Golf Course Rock Art Site

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

Log Text: This is a small Ancestral Pueblo/Fremont rock art panel on a cliff face across the street from a golf course in suburban Moab UT. Its main virtue is nearly drive-up access - the panels are just steps away from the dirt parking area behind a wooden fence.

To get there, take Route 191 south from Moab city center for about 3 miles. Take a left onto East Spanish Trail Rd and drive a mile or so to a traffic circle (roundabout). Continue around the traffic circle straight onto Westwater Rd. Continue on Westwater for about 0.75 miles. The site is at a sandstone cliff wall on the left with parking available next to the fence.

Mont Helena

Date Added: 4th Feb 2023
Site Type: Artificial Mound Country: United States (The South)
Visited: Yes on 1st Oct 2022. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: The one remaining mound is on private property. There is a Victorian mansion on top. Closest view from a vehicle is a pull-off on Rolling Fork Rd, about 800 ft from the site. Good visibility.

Moonflower Petroglyphs

Date Added: 3rd Jun 2025
Site Type: Rock Art Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2025. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is one of the most easily accessible rock art sites in Moab. The unpaved parking lot serves both a campground and a day use area right next to the rock art panel. You can likely view the panel from inside a vehicle and disabled access shouldn't be a problem. The panel is literally right next to parking and a very short walk.

Unfortunately easy access usually means significant vandalism and graffiti and this site is no exception, as some seem to feel the need to add their tagline to the panel. The least abused of the panels is right next to a huge crack in the canyon wall that kids often climb up. As you go to the right, the damage increases exponentially.

To get there, take Kane Creek Blvd west from the McDonalds on Rte 191 approximately 3 miles to the site on the left. It is signposted.