USA: CO Mesa Verde - Soda Canyon Overlook Trail, Balcony House
September 2024

Soda Canyon Overlook Trail

Soda Canyon from the overlook. Balcony House is in an alcove about half way along the upper layer of bare stone.

We started early on the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail and were all alone there on a glorious morning, before it got too hot.

Great views of the canyon and of Balcony House. It's a very easy walk, only 1.2 miles in total.

Remains of another cliff dwelling in the canyon. The white deposits are calcium carbonate, evidence of a seep spring.

Balcony House

Balcony House from Soda Canyon Overlook Trail.

We made an early start for our tour of Balcony House. It was the first of our three visits into the cliff dwellings and it was really wonderful to get into this communal housing in an alcove in the cliff. We had to climb a 30 foot ladder and crawl through narrow tunnels to reach it and more ladders and steps carved in to the rock face to get out. Balcony House is one of the best preserved sites at Mesa Verde.

The ladder to be climbed to enter the site.

Seep spring below Balcony House. Water sources such as this were vital to the survival of the Ancient Pueblo people.

The ladder into the site is quite steep and a few people were a bit worried about it but everyone made it up.

Structures reach up to the roof maximising habitable space.

One of the balconies for which the dwelling is named.

First is the North Plaza with two-storey buildings.

The dwelling gets its name from the balconies which run along the base of the first floor of the two storey buildings. They were used by the inhabitants to move easily between buildings at this level.

Ring-dating from juniper wood used in construction indicates Balcony House underwent three building phases. None of the structures from the first phase from 1180 to about 1220 survives. What can be seen today is from the following two construction periods in the 1240s and 1270s.

Structure of the balcony.
Probably all of the lower poles extended through the structure to the opposite wall and were part of the interior floor framework.

Soda Canyon from Balcony House.

There is a small window between the North Plaza and Kiva Plaza.

Kiva Plaza has two kivas.

Typical Mesa Verde keyhole-shape kiva with fire pit, deflector, bench and pilasters. Behind the deflector is the cavity at the bottom of the ventilator shaft, the top can be seen in the surrounding wall above.

Kiva Plaza is reached from North Plaza via a short ladder and hand and toe holds across the bare rock leading to a narrow tunnel behind the building.

The two kivas were constructed in the second phase of building in the 1240s.

The vertical iron brackets were set in place in 1910 to help stabilise buildings.

T-shaped doorway.

Various quern stones for grinding grain.
In the space that runs behind both plazas there is a reliable spring.

Walled chambers at the end of Kiva Plaza with another T-shaped aperture.

Probably a fire pit in one of the end small chambers in Kiva Plaza.

The sequence of ladders and scrambles to get out of Balcony House; seen from Soda Canyon Overlook Trail.

By 1300 this region had become almost completely depopulated. The tree rings show that there was a drought at the end of the thirteenth century, perhaps the main reason why the people moved on.

Soda Canyon

Guides consulted: Mesa Verde NP Balcony House Guide
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