11 votes

Yucca House National Monument

Cortez, Colorado 81330 USA

Independent

“Beautiful ancient site”

Yucca House National Monument preserves a large Ancestral Puebloan surface site in southwestern Colorado. It is located west of Mesa Verde National Park between the towns of Towaoc and Cortez. The ancient structures are on the gently sloping base of the Sleeping Ute Mountain. The name "Yucca House" was selected for the monument because the Ute Indians called Sleeping Ute Mountain by a name meaning yucca, for there is an abundance of the yucca plant growing on the mountainsides. Sign the visitor book, walk around the mounds, and absorb the beauty of the site in this valley. Try to imagine life here hundreds of years ago. The National Park Service does not recommend travel to this monument for the casual visitor. There are currently no facilities at the monument. The dirt road to Yucca House is impassable in wet weather.

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Reviewed by
JessicaGamba

1 Review
4 Helpful

October 16, 2016

Rated 1.0

What? No. This is on private property with numerous signs warning against trespassing. We went anyway and there was a sign indicating the site, but there was literally nothing to actually look at. We asked a man living next to the site if we were missing anything, and he confirmed that that was all there was to it. Skip!

4 people found this review helpful

Reviewed by
lindaloprestiproulx

5 Reviews
1 Helpful

April 17, 2023

INFO FROM NATIONAL PARK WEBSITE 4/23

Directions to Yucca House National Monument

From the entrance of Mesa Verde National Park, take Hwy. 160 West through Cortez, to Hwy. 491 South.
Continue driving south approximately 8 miles from the intersection of Hwy. 160 and Hwy. 491.
Take a right on MC County Road B (green sign), which is a dirt road one mile south of MC Road C.
Drive 0.8 miles, crossing a paved road (MC Road 21).
Take the next dirt road on the right before the farmhouse on the left. (As you make this turn, you will cross a yellow cattle guard and pass a Box Bar Ranch, No Trespassing sign. The "no trespassing" sign does not apply to the county road.)
Follow this road north and west for 1.4 miles, and head towards the white ranch house with the red roof on the west horizon.
Once at the ranch house, Yucca House National Monument is on the left side of the driveway.
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Please be courteous toward the private landowners and close all gates behind you as you enter to prevent livestock from escaping.
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