Sight · Mesa Verde National Park
Thirty rooms, a kiva, and a village life measured in ten years.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mesa Verde Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mesa Verde National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Sun Point Pueblo and Sun Point View“Ahead are Sun Point Pueblo and the nearby Sun Point View. Choose the overlook if you want to see the wider cliff-dwelling neighborhood across Cliff and Fewkes canyons.”
Plays as you drive up to Sun Point Pueblo in the Parkwolf Mesa Verde Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Sun Point Pueblo is the covered remains of a 30-room Ancestral Pueblo village on Chapin Mesa. It was one of Mesa Verde’s last mesa-top pueblos and is stop 6 on the six-mile Mesa Top Loop. This is a brief archaeology stop; nearby Sun Point View is a separate overlook for views of cliff dwellings.
A flat, paved path of about 50 yards leads to the covered excavation. The site is listed as wheelchair accessible, with parking and interpretive exhibits. Near the center of the village, a large kiva and tower were connected by a tunnel. From the path, frame the curved kiva wall and sunken floor together to show its circular form.
Pottery found here led archaeologists to estimate that the village was occupied for only about ten years. That is a short span for a settlement of 30 rooms, built around a large kiva and tower.
Wooden roof beams, a common way to date occupation, are missing from the site. They may have been reused in nearby cliff dwellings, but that remains a possibility rather than a confirmed explanation.
Wildlife
36 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
159 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
14 sightingsGolden EagleMost seen around noonSighting map
53 sightingsWild HorseMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
24 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
37 sightingsWild TurkeyMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mesa Verde. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasySun Temple Trail0.2 mi · 18 min · 0.3 mi awayA short paved walk to Sun Temple and a Cliff Palace view.
EasySoda Canyon Overlook Trail1.2 mi · 40 min · 0.6 mi awayAn easy mesa walk to three views of Balcony House
ChallengingBalcony House Tour0.3 mi · 1 hr · 0.7 mi awayTry the tour if steep ladders and a tight crawl suit you.
EasySquare Tower House Overlook Trail0.2 mi · 15 min · 0.8 mi awayA rare top-down view into a cliff dwelling's rooms.
EasySpruce Tree House Trail0.5 mi · 1 hr · 1.7 mi awayA steep paved path leads to a cliff dwelling beneath an arch.
ChallengingPetroglyph Point Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 1.7 mi awayA rugged loop to Mesa Verde petroglyphs and canyon views.
ChallengingSpruce Canyon Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 1.7 mi awayA steep loop into Mesa Verde's cool, shaded canyon.
EasyFarming Terrace Trail0.5 mi · 36 min · 2.5 mi awayA half-mile loop through 800-year-old farming terraces
Sight · 0.1 mi awayOak Tree House OverlookA quick canyon-side look at a 60-room Ancestral Pueblo village.
Sight · 0.2 mi awaySun Point ViewLook past Cliff Palace to see the whole canyon neighborhood.
Sight · 0.2 mi awayFire Temple and New Fire House OverlookTwo cliffside sites share a canyon view; Fire Temple has a plaza.
Sight · 0.3 mi awaySun TempleA rare D-shaped structure, with Cliff Palace across the canyon.
Sight · 0.3 mi awayMesa Top SitesSee three villages layered into a single archaeological stop.
Sight · 0.4 mi awayCliff Canyon OverlookPick out cliff dwellings across a broad canyon panorama.
Sight · 0.5 mi awayCliff PalaceA 150-room cliff dwelling, seen from above or entered by ladder.
Sight · 0.5 mi awayHouse of Many Windows OverlookA 15-room cliff dwelling, perched on a ten-foot-wide ledge.Parkwolf’s Mesa Verde ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
