Yucca House National Monument

[taatmk]

On Friday, May 23, we visited a seldom seen national monument in southwest Colorado. Yucca House National Monument is administered by the park service out of Mesa Verde. They maintain the park policy that the best way to "preserve" the ruins is to leave them essentially unexcavated. Yucca House National Monument consists of two main pueblos. A south unit and the north unit. The north pueblo is much larger, consisting of several unexcavated dwellings, including several room depressions and kiva depressions. The south unit is smaller, but contains the only standing masonry wall.

We found many pottery shards in the north unit; they remain where they were found. To access the monument requires travel over several private farm roads. The parking area for Yucca House is literally in a farmer's driveway, or so it seems. We saw no one at the farmer house nor workshop while we were visiting Yucca House. There is no fee for entry. There is a park service sign in book.