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EnCompass^® The AAA Companion

January \| February 2005 Volume 79 Issue 1

MiniTour

Touching the Ancient Ones
A hands-on experience at Ute Mountain Tribal Park brings the Anasazi to life.
Article and photos by Steven Cohen

I stood at the bottom of the 30-foot primitive ladder and looked up. It was late afternoon. I could feel the Mancos Valley dust on my skin and taste it in my mouth. I had been told that at the top were 17 elevated rooms and one circular ceremonial gathering site called a "kiva" — another enclave abandoned to the spirits. The climb seemed daunting, but I knew this would be as close as I'd ever come to a bird's eye view of the box canyon in which the long-gone Anasazi had built their homes and lives.

My chest pounded as I slowly began to scale the very long ladder.

At the top, shaded by the protective overhanging lip of the mesa, I could see all the other ruins encircled by the canyon. It was not much of a leap to imagine Anasazi plying these very trails, hauling water in pottery jugs from the river below. The scent of dry earth and evergreens mingled in the heat. Only silence remained.

I glanced down and at my feet were ancient pottery shards. I knelt and took a piece of pottery in my hand, marveling at the thought that I was holding something another human had held nearly 1,000 years ago. The intimacy of the moment seemed to dissolve time.

This issue's Mini Tour focuses on little-known Ute Mountain Tribal Park, 20 miles south of Cortez, and 30 miles northwest of Four Corners (where borders of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet). The park contains 125,000 acres, a handful of excavated ruins and hundreds of unexcavated archaeological sites. Last year, only 3,000 connoisseurs of pueblo ruins explored its barren-looking gullies and hillsides, which were last inhabited from 400-1200 A.D.

Nearby, internationally renowned Mesa Verde National Park draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to its spectacular ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings, museums and ranger-led tours. While a visit to Mesa Verde is a must, it's also true that long lines are the norm during peak seasons and a generally institutionalized sensibility (such as a "no touching" policy) is necessary to protect the ruins from large numbers of visitors.

At Ute Mountain Tribal Park, which surrounds Mesa Verde on three sides and is twice as large, the experience is much more intimate. Waiting for a 9 a.m. tour of Ute Mountain Park to begin—my watch ticking off 9:05, 9:10, 9:15, with no guide in sight—I suspected this experience would be different from the more organized, punctual version of Native American life and history conveyed at federally operated parks.

Tommy May, our Ute guide, arrived 30 minutes late without explanation or apology. He said little and motioned for the tour participants to follow him. A small caravan of private vehicles trailed his truck into the park.

This would be the pattern for the daylong tour. I drove my own car over the park's dirt roads, barely able to see the car ahead at times in the fierce dust. Periodically, Mr. May and his silent but not unfriendly assistant would pull over and the 10 other tour members would pile out of their cars and fan out over the vast terrain.

At one stop, a few miles down the road, low, treeless hills and rocky meadows were covered for many acres with beautiful 1,000-year-old bits of handmade coiled clay pottery shards, once water jugs or cup handles. I was happily surprised to find that we were free to touch anything. Elsewhere, these items would be contained in hands-off museum displays. I had never before seen such a collection, not in Mesa Verde, nor anywhere else in the Four Corners region.

"I find arrowheads all the time. I just throw 'em back, though," said Mr. May. One important rule: There is a $500 fine for removing anything. "The best preserved Anasazi sites in the whole Southwest are in the tribal park," he continued. "They've been protected because they're on the reservation."

Visitors from Israel, Egypt and Japan have been among the curious willing to drive nearly 100 miles on the dusty roads and climb steep rock cliffs using primitive ladders or ancient hand-holds to reach petroglyph carvings and wall paintings. The payoff for such efforts is a deeper understanding and sense of the lives of the Anasazi or "Ancient Ones."

Further into the park the road climbed out of the bare desert and into higher juniper, piñon and cedar forest. After a picnic lunch, we left the cars behind and hiked down over the mesa top to reach the only partially excavated Anasazi housing sites in the vast park.

From the lip of the mesa we could see Tree House Ruin, carved out of the cliff sides. Its natural camouflage hid it for centuries until discovery by the Wetherill family (local ranchers who also reported the finding of Mesa Verde).

Climbing down a series of short ladders over the side of the mesa, we walked single file along a good trail that hugged precipitous ledges to the Tree House. The ruin originally contained 27 living rooms and three kivas.

The structure had once been a three-story dwelling. Stubby end pieces of wooden ceiling beams still plugged holes chiseled out of the rock. Low ceilings and small doorways indicated the small stature of the Anasazi. Eight-hundred-year-old corncobs, more pottery and bone shards all seemed to illustrate the life of a long-lost civilization.

Lion House, nearby, was named for mountain lions that are still sometimes found here. These ruins were four stories high, with 47 rooms and six kivas, making it the largest excavated site in the tribal park. A quarter-mile farther, Morris Five Ruin contained 17 rooms, two kivas. It's impossible to know how many other ruins remain hidden by the centuries.

Walking in single file with a Native American guide in front and one in back, our group explored tottering ruins and climbed through holes in rock to enter one-time Anasazi living rooms. In such places, I could see original timbers defining long-collapsed rooflines, and I could see and touch creosote from ancient wood fires that had stained the rocks black above fire pits.

I couldn't help but think about Mesa Verde—how its larger, impeccably kept ruins are nearly sanitized compared to this place. While it's true that visitors to nearly every Anasazi site in the Southwest can get a sense of those who dwelled within the ruins, they can get a much greater feel for the "Ancient Ones" at Ute Mountain Tribal Park, where the imagination can be fueled by hiking, climbing and the simple act of touching.

Steven Cohen is an award-winning travel writer and photographer. A long-time Colorado resident, he's currently writing and producing motion pictures in Southern California.

Planning Your Trip

Here's a suggested itinerary for a three-day tour in the Four Corners region.

Day One: Learn about Native Americans of the Four Corners at the Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez. This small museum focuses on the Basketmaker and Pueblo periods of the Ancestral Pueblo people, as well as the Ute Mountain Ute, Pueblo and Navajo tribes. Open Monday to Saturday, you can be in and out in an hour, or stay longer and view excellent videos on the entire Four Corners area.

Learn more at the Anasazi Heritage Center, a federal museum for Four Corners prehistory, which is located on State Highway 184, three miles from Dolores. The Heritage Center is also the visitor center for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

Hands-on exhibits include corn-grinding implements, a loom and weaving materials. Permanent artifact exhibits flank a partially reconstructed full-size pithouse. Outside are two 12th century archaeological sites, the Dominguez site and Escalante Pueblo, named after the Spanish Franciscan friars who were the first to record prehistoric sites in Colorado.

If time allows, visit Lowry Ruins, 28 miles northwest of Cortez, off U.S. Highway 491 (previously U.S. Highway 666) at Pleasant View on County Road CC. It's typical of medium-sized pueblos that once dotted the area. Lowry Pueblo had 40 rooms at its peak in the early 11th century, and was home to 100 people.

Day Two: Ute Mountain Tribal Park tour fees are $20-$60. Winter tours depend on weather and dryness of roads. Reservations are required. Bring gas, water and food. Park roads are well-maintained, graded gravel or dirt. Expect moderate hiking and climbing. In winter, you may possibly get the park all to yourself. If you opt for the half-day tour, try your luck at the Ute Mountain Casino, 12 miles south of Cortez on U.S. Highway 160. The meeting point for tours is at the Tribal Park visitor center at the junction of highways 160 and 491, 20 miles southwest of Cortez.

Day Three: Hovenweep National Monument is located on the Colorado/Utah border, about 50 miles west of Cortez. Admission is charged. Six Ancestral Puebloan sites are within the monument. They're characterized by unique square, oval, circular and D-shaped towers, accessible by easy hikes. Services here include only restrooms, water and a campground. Carry food and a full tank of gas.

In the summer, consider a hands-on excavation experience with Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, near Cortez. Reservations a must; 800-422-8975, or www.crowcanyon.org.

For more information contact your local AAA Travel professional, click on travel, or www.mesaverdecountry.com, or call 800-530-2998.

AAA Connection
Southwestern Colorado, rich in history and natural beauty, is a great getaway year-round. AAA offers an exclusive package for members, including Durango, Mesa Verde and Silverton Railroad. Ask your local AAA Travel professional or click on travel.

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