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| Spruce House. This area has been closed due to the hazards of rock falls. Here the Ancestral Pueblo built a village in a well-sheltered alcove in the sandstone cliffs. |
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| Spruce canyon with Yucca baccata in the foreground. |
The park was different from my
expectations prior to the visit, mainly in terms of vegetation and topography. I had pictured
cliff dwellings set in steep mountains covered with green forests and lingering
snow at this time of year. Rather, the mesa environment was fairly dry with
more sparse vegetation and just a bit of snow in places. The snow-covered peaks
of Colorado and eastern Utah could be seen in the distance, however.
A one mile hike from Spruce Tree
House takes one to a small collection of petroglyphs carved into the vertical
face of light-colored sandstone rock. The trail also affords pretty remarkable
views of the canyons that cut the mesa at the south end of the park.
The cliff houses were the most
interesting feature of the park in my view. These structures were made of
sandstone blocks with mortar, and set in the vertical faces or alcoves of sandstone
cliffs. One tower was 4-storied. Some of the dwelling locations seemed pretty
inaccessible from either the top of the mesa or the valleys below. These areas
possibly afforded protection from the elements or from hostile neighbors. The
dwellings were apparently abandoned by the population of the area abruptly
about 700 years ago but the cause isn’t well understood.
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| Square Tower House. |
Reference
Patraw PM. 1977. Flowers of the Southwest mesas. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Globe, AZ.
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| Sunset over eastern Utah. |
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| Sunset from "Geologic Outlook". |
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