Escalante Pueblo Overlooks and the Weber Canyon Fire

On June 30, 2012 at 12:00 noon, smoke from the Weber Canyon forest fire is visible from the Escalante Pueblo overlook points at the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores in southwest Colorado. One of the interpretive signs on the hilltop at the end of the 1 mile round trip hike has these comments about the surrounding landscape.

From this hilltop one can view the six directions significant to Native Americans – north, south, east west, zenith (above) and nadir (below). It is a place to watch the sun during its yearly journey along the horizon, a place to gaze at stars in the night sky, a place to observe and appreciate the diversity of the landscape that surrounds you.

They understood that humans are not distinct, separate beings from the natural environment but that every act and thought of any human being affects the cosmos. They moved through the land with a sensibility that allowed nuances of the wind, sun and ground to affect their decision making…Their sense of home, or place, was in the space between the earth and sky and not with a specific human-built structure.

Escalante Pueblo Hilltop Winter Views

The Escalante Pueblo is one of the few excavated and easy to view sites in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado. The site is located on the hilltop at the end of the 0.5 mile Interpretive Trail behind the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores, CO. In winter, the trail is cleared of snow and can be easily hiked.

Escalante Pueblo and its nearby neighbor Dominguez Pueblo were built in the 1120s by the Ancestral Pueblo people. The location is remarkable for the views over the Dolores River with the San Juan Mountains visible in the distance. It has a rectangular layout surrounding a circular kiva. The building style resembles the Far View House at Mesa Verde and the Lowry Pueblo near Pleasant View, CO.

The Escalante Pueblo overlooks the area called the Big Bend of the Dolores River. The Dolores flows south from its headwaters near Lizard Head Pass and makes a sweeping turn to the northwest, flowing toward a junction with the San Miguel River and on to a junction with the Colorado River upstream of Moab, Utah. The area that is now flooded by McPhee Reservoir is rich with now submerged archaeology sites.

The view to the east is dominated by the LaPlata Mountains, featuring Mt. Hesperus, one of the four sacred peaks of the Navajo. The grassy mesa top areas on the north side of the McPhee Reservoir have some small ruins sites that can be visited by hiking. The Anasazi Heritage Center acts as the visitor center for the Canyons of the Ancients and has excellent and creative displays of the artifacts that were recovered prior to the construction of McPhee Reservoir.


Getting to Know Canyons of the Ancient National Monument