The outlying sites are just as interesting as the more well known cliff dwellings, in particular Far View Sites, much older than the cliff dwellings and a community of up to 50 villages.
Cedar Tree Tower, Far View Sites, Park Point Overlook
Cliff Palace, Cliff Palace Loop
Mesa Top Loop, Square Tower House
Soda Canyon Overlook Trail, Balcony House
Spruce Tree House, Petroglyph Point
A now isolated dwelling with a tower and kiva on Chapin Mesa.
It's a nice place to visit, nobody there when we were, and wide views across the mesas.
The tower is double-walled giving it the strength it needs to stand. Comparing this to Mesa Top Sites on Mesa Top Loop this would mean it was probably built some time after the late 11th century.
Over 105 towers were built on Mesa Verde. They could have been signalling stations, observatories, or watchtowers. Because some towers were connected by tunnels to kivas, it's also possible they had a ceremonial purpose.
Far View Sites, towards the north end of Chapin Mesa, covers six excavated archaeological sites. It was one of the most densely populated areas on the mesa with nearly 50 villages identified within a half square mile area.1
Farmsteads and public buildings were set among small agricultural fields in use long before the construction of the cliff dwellings. This was home to a vibrant community for hundreds of years, well into the 1200s.
From 700 AD Coyote Village was built, occupied, abandoned, rebuilt and reoccupied several times into the early 1200s. It has five kivas, one connected by an underground tunnel with a tower. Four of the five kivas have the distinctive Mesa Verde keyhole shape.
I imagine a hard-working, peaceful people, with few outside threats, but a difficult climate to deal with. Access to water would have been paramount. The mesa tops had areas of rich, deep soil and the people built numerous check dams across many drainages to collect water and soil which otherwise would have been washed off the mesa. These developed into ideal farming terraces.
There is evidence that water collected naturally in the low spot of the central Reservoir. Excavations have revealed sherds from ollas, around 86% of sherds discovered here are from these water and food storage jars. Pollen from water-loving plants such as cattails and ferns is present in soils buried beneath the older walls - these types of pollen are found nowhere else in the Far View area. This and other evidence has led archaeologists to conclude that the structure was indeed built to collect water.
Construction was carried out in two phases. The oldest sections date to around 950 AD while the final construction was completed around 1200 AD.
The information board at the site says that the people began construction by scooping out the mud in the central low spot. Later they built a stone wall, piling mud behind it, later still a second wall was built, again with mud piled behind. Finally the continuous wall lining the interior of the reservoir was built.
Not far from the reservoir Megalithic House is a small collection of rooms which was probably home to a single family. It gets its name from tall stones used in the walls of the rooms.
It consists of several living an storage surrounded by a courtyard with a kiva.It represents a typical family home of the late 1100s. The house would have had garden plots of corn, beans and squash, the three staples of life for ancient cultures throughout north and central America.
Far View Tower was a small pueblo at the heart of the farming community of Far View. It consists of room blocks, a round tower, two keyhole-shaped kivas and a possible third kiva. The tower was built around 1200, one of at least 60 across Mesa Verde.
Far View House was the largest building in the Far View community with at least 40 rooms on the ground floor and about 30 rooms on the second floor. It's layout and features have led archaeologists to believe that this is a Great House, of which we saw several in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. They are thought to have been built to house large numbers of people. Far View House had one large kiva and four smaller ones.
It, and nearby Pipe Shrine House, were built around 1000 AD and sites nearby suggest this location may have been the centre of the Far View Community.
Decorated tobacco pipes, small carved stone figures and pottery were found in an enclosure in one of the kivas, which led to the conclusion that it was a religious shrine. Hence the name of Pipe Shrine House.
At 2613m (8572ft) Park Point Overlook has extensive views. We went up a couple of times. On our first visit thunder clouds were gathering dramatically over the fire-damaged landscape.
Quite often the rain never reaches the ground, evaporating in the hot air.
