Mesa Verde’s announcement that hiking and bicycling will be allowed on the Wetherill Mesa tram road is good news, with a small “but.” The change will help accomplish several goals: Access to the tram road, now called the “Long House Loop,” makes the park more attractive to people who have a limited interest in short, crowded trails to crowded cliff dwellings. That is a large percentage of the American public, and in the past, Mesa Verde has not had much to offer them. The park does have hiking trails, but the six-mile tram road offers easy hiking on a level surface. A leisurely walk along a portion of that road is a good warm-up for people who perhaps should not tackle the steep trails and ladders to the cliff dwellings immediately upon arriving at this altitude.
The tram road also provides a safe bicycling environment, something that is hard to come by on the park’s narrow roads. While some cyclists enjoy the agony of climbing the entrance road and the thrill (and potential terror) of flying back down it, many more just want to get out, stretch their legs and enjoy the scenery. Wetherill Mesa is a good place for families to do that, and the possibility of a bicycle concession there is exciting.
And hiking and biking along the Long Mesa Loop provides a different, more personal kind of access to the geology, archaeology and natural history of the area. While the sites there are not as famous as Cliff Palace and Balcony House, Wetherill Mesa is well worth visiting and deserves more attention than it receives.
From the park’s point of view, allowing increased non-motorized access – as well as opening Wetherill Mesa earlier in the spring and keeping it open later – may help to disperse visitation that now concentrates heavily on Chapin Mesa. That will be especially valuable while preservation work limits access to Cliff Palace, but over the long term, it is just a good idea in general.
We applaud the Park Service first for trying the Wetherill Mesa “hike and bike” events over the past several years, and then for learning from that experience that visitors do want to experience the park under their own steam. The cross-country ski and snowshoe trails there also are wonderful recreational amenities, especially because of the absence of motorized users. Under Superintendent Cliff Spencer, the park is doing a good job of getting people out of their cars for more than just cliff-dwelling tours.
Because of the willingness to let visitors explore on their own, the loss of the Wetherill Mesa tram service due to contractual issues is not a severe problem. At the same time, though, we urge park planners not to give up on the idea of public transportation that allows more visitors to “park and ride,” perhaps parking at the visitor center just off of U.S. Highway 160 and riding together to sites on the mesa. That would alleviate crowding in parking lots, which in turn would reduce visitor frustration and safety issues. It would enable people who are not comfortable driving up the entrance road to visit the park. And it could greatly reduce the number of vehicle miles driven each day.
The idea of a tram up the side of the mesa is far-fetched and impractical, and it is not what Mesa Verde needs. The park does need ways to move people effectively from place to place. Increasing access to the west end of the park is a very good start, but we hope the park will continue to plan for sensible mass transit as well.