BAD TRAVELS

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The buildings here were constructed from A.D. 1230 to 1275 by the ancestral Pueblo people. Built about the same time as the famous Mesa Verde cliff dwellings but these ruins are motley on the canyon rim and they look like they did when first found. Check out the BLOG!

Hovenweep is a Ute/Paiute word that means deserted valley. The fine state of ruins and their unusual architecture led to their designation as a National Monument in 1923.

You’re able to do a self guided tour of the ruins by hiking a 2 mile loop around the canyon. It’s not crowded here at all so you can really take your time and get a good look at the structures.

Named for it’s fortress like appearance.

Same ruin but seen from below. They’re not sure if it was built for defines or if the builders were just responding to the challenges of the terrain.

Hike back up the other side of the rim

These 2 towers are among the most carefully constructed buildings in the southwest. One is oval, one is horseshoe shaped and between them there are 16 rooms.

The mountains in the background make this a very picturesque location

Despite the name, they don’t think anyone lived here, there are no room dividers. There are lots of little openings and unusual angles in the walls…..peepholes, ways to observe the sun or plain old ventilation???

Square tower and Hovenweep castle

This was the centre of the largest Pueblo villages in the square tower group, the rest has been crumbled away.

No king or queen lived in this “castle”, farmers did. What we liked best about this place is that the ruins haven’t been totally rebuilt, just reinforced where needed to prevent further degradation.

We thought this was the most intriguing structure here, it’s the boulder house. Great idea to build around it, definately solid!

A little further down the road were some less visited sites…the roads to get to them require you to have a high clearance vehicle and 4 wheel drive helps….just in case.

In the middle of nowhere

This was at the Holly ruin, it’s hard to believe that structures this old have survived this long. Those builders knew what they were doing!

How they constructed this tower on the boulder is mind boggling, it’s quite unique.

The only structure at the Horseshoe ruin site.

The hackberry ruin.

On the trail back from the Hackberry site, Dave noticed this guy….

A stunning turquoise version of the collard lizard.

and he sat there and posed for my camera, without moving for at least 10 minutes. I said thank you to him many, many times. What a gorgeous thing! He was still on this cairn when we left.