Oak Tree House and Fire Temple - Fewkes Canyon

Photo: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, a free self-guided tour.

From these overlooks you look into Fewkes Canyon, a short side canyon packed with sites. Across from you is Oak Tree House, a village of roughly 50 rooms and several kivas filling a long alcove.

At the next pullout, look for Fire Temple and New Fire House sitting side by side. New Fire House was a home. Fire Temple was different: a big, open, walled court with a large hearth and benches, built for gatherings rather than daily living. Archaeologists think this canyon, with Fire Temple below and Sun Temple on the rim above, may have been a ceremonial center for the whole Cliff Palace neighborhood.

The canyon is named for Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian, who excavated and repaired many of these sites in the early 1900s so visitors could see them.

Notice how the alcoves face different directions. Builders chose each one for shelter, sun and access as carefully as you might choose a house lot.

Getting here: Drive a few hundred yards farther on the loop to the Oak Tree House overlook; the Fire Temple overlook is the next pullout.

Did you know?: The cliff dwellings you have seen are a small sample: the park protects nearly 5,000 known archaeological sites, about 600 of them cliff dwellings.

Photo op: From the Oak Tree House rail, frame the full length of the alcove with the oak brush below.

Nearby: None; pullouts are small, so park only in marked spaces.

More on Wikipedia: Jesse Walter Fewkes · Mesa Verde National Park · Kiva

Oak Tree House and Fire Temple - Fewkes Canyon

Stops on this tour