Mesa Verde National Park Colorado - Wethermill Mesa

Welcome to a quieter side of Mesa Verde National Park.  Wethermill Meas offers easy bicycle rides (bring your own) and short hiking trail to archaeological sites and scenic overlooks. 

Its a 28 mile long winding drive to the parking lot at the end of Wethermill Mesa road.  

The path around the Long House Loop is 5 miles. We decided to visit Nordenskiold #16, Badger House and the Long House Overlook which is just short of 4 miles round trip.

It was windy, chilly and beginning to rain.  Kathy was prepared with gloves and her ear warmers.  

Here is the trail marker for Nordenskiold #16.  

This is the first view of the pueblo as we approach the site. 

The Nordenskiold #16 cliff dwellings are interesting because the cliff has sort of a double alcove that the ancient architects took advantage of to make two levels of structures. The ruins are far enough away that a pair of binoculars or a telephoto lens are needed to see them well. This photo was taken with maximum zoom on our camera.

Trail Marker for the Badger House Community.  

They do have wild horses in the park as evidenced in this photo.  We did see a lot of evidence but no horses. 

About 1,400 years ago, long before Europeans explored North America, a group of people living in the Four Corners region chose Mesa Verde for their home. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished here, eventually building elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls.

The Badger House Community consists of several sites dating from about A.D. 650 to the late 1200s. There are four sites along a paved and gravel walking trail. These homes were built one stone thick with a wood mud roofs. 

Pueblo Village was considered one of the first communities in Mesa Verde. 

You can see here that the site was covered with a metal framed building to help preserve the site for future generations. The framing was such that metal windows would slide close during winter months to keep out the elements.

Over time masonry replaced Adobe style walls and central villages came to dominate smaller subordinate ones scattered around them in multi-village polities.

This Kiva used for religious ceremonies and other gatherings.  

This photo shows the depth of the Kiva.

You can see here that two Kivas were built for this community.

Here you can see the changes from a one wall construction to a two wall construction formation. 

This era also resulted in the introduction of pottery, which reduced the number of baskets that they made and eliminated the creation of woven bags. The simple, gray pottery allowed them a better tool for cooking and storage.

Long House is considered the second largest cliff dwelling in the park. The sheer beauty of the site makes the trip out to Wetherill Mesa worth the time and effort. 

You can see in this photo a ranger and visitor are visiting this site.  We did see them leave from the parking lot before we started our hike but did not know where they were headed. 

The watch tower was believed to be used for communicating between villages or between farms and villages or possibly keeping an eye on your enemy. 

Can you see the watch tower in this photo?

Photo enlarged for viewing.  Most pueblos site also had a watch tower. One of the most famous is located in Cliff Palace. 

Kathy and I both enjoyed our trip to Mesa Verde National Park.  Had we known the beauty of this park we would have certainly made an effort to visit Mesa Verde on our previous trips west.  It is a little out of the way but well worth the effort it takes to get here.