Images of Yucca House National Monument – Southwestern Colorado, taken in April 2016.

Yucca House National Monument was created in 1919 but is still a totally undeveloped park. There is one standing outside wall that is identifiable as well as debris that suggests rooms and kivas otherwise it is hard to imagine the actual layout of this pueblo.

It’s obvious that this park is not heavily visited. First, even though it is only about 10 miles outside of Cortez Colorado, you have to navigate several dirt roads to get there; and secondly, you have to enter a working ranch, drive through a heard of grazing cows and park in the dirt driveway of the ranch house.

While I was visiting there was a group of Mesa Verde National Park rangers getting briefed on the park so that they would have a better understanding of the area which is in close proximity to the park where they work. I was able to talk with one of them who showed me a diagram of the area giving me a better idea of what I was exploring.

This park was incredibly interesting for what you don’t see in other parks, artifacts; shards of pottery were visible on top of the ground in full view. I spent at least an hour searching a small area to see what I could find. There were all kinds of painted pottery but I also found several pieces that were clearly from the same artifact as they all had the identical unpainted weave pattern including one that was obviously part of the lip of the object, possibly a bowl or jar. As always when in a National Park you leave things undisturbed but I did take away images of what I found; hopefully everyone else who may visit this place will do the same.