Paul & Tara Visit the National Parks

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Hovenweep National Monument

Visited: May 2017

Nearby town: Bluff, UT; Blanding, UT

In a desolate, windswept, and isolated corner of southeastern Utah, lies a hauntingly beautiful complex of ruins overlooking a lonely canyon.

Hovenweep (which means "deserted valley" in the Ute language) National Monument preserves and protects a number of Ancestral Puebloan villages scattered in Utah (and also some just across the border in Colorado).

I didn't know much about Hovenweep before our trip, but we were in the Four Corners area and decided to go a little out of our way to visit. I'm so glad we did. I was blown away by the ruins. They are very impressive, and I must admit they're also kind of spooky and eerie. This is an awesome setting, and is well worth a visit.

Evidence indicates that hunter-gatherers lived in this canyon as long as 10,000 years ago. The ruins you see in the monument were built by the Ancestral Puebloan around 1100 - 1300 AD. The Ancestral Puebloans also built the structures at nearby Mesa Verde National Park and Aztec Ruins National Monument.

The Ancestral Puebloans abandoned these villages around the end of the 13th century. It's not entirely known why they left, but it was probably a sustained drought. Evidence suggests that they moved further south, to the Rio Grande in present-day New Mexico, or the Gila River in Arizona.

The villages sat abandoned for hundreds and hundreds of years. In 1854, William D. Huntington, a Mormon missionary, discovered the ruins at Hovenweep. His Ute and Navajo guides knew about the ruins, and believed they were haunted, and urged Huntington to stay away. As interest grew in these mysterious and awe-inspiring ruins, Hovenweep National Monument was created on March 2, 1923.

There are six (6) groups of ruins that one can visit: Square Tower, Cajon, Cutthroat Castle, Goodman Point, Holly Group, and Hackberry and Horseshoe Group. The most extensive, most visited, and most accessible is the Square Tower Group. The other 5 can be accessed either by hiking trail, or by roads, but the roads are not well-maintained and require all-wheel drive and high clearance, etc.

We only visited the Square Tower, but that alone is worth the trip. As always, the first stop is the Visitor Center to learn all about the ruins and the people who lived there. Then take the loop trail (it's about 2 miles) to explore. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. That made it very special.

The first prominent structure on the loop trail are The Twin Towers on the opposite side of the canyon. I really liked this ruin. Very neat and unique.

At its peak, Hovenweep was home to about 500 people. The buildings here served a variety of purposes: tool and grinding work areas, kivas for spiritual and ritual functions, residential rooms, and storage. Crops grown here included maize (corn), amaranth, beans, squash, and cotton.

this "covered" house built into the rock was very cool and unique

Little Ruin Canyon

The trail offers spectacular views of Sleeping Ute Mountain, which looms on the horizon.

Now comes the largest building in the group: Hovenweep Castle. The slots and doors of the Castle act as a solar calendar. The building is aligned so that light channels through those openings in predictable and distinct patterns at sunset on summer and winter solstice, as well as vernal and autumnal equinox.

Another great ruin to check out is the Square Tower down in the canyon.

Take your time as you wander and wonder.

this is my favorite shot

Hovenweep exceeded my expectations big time. For more info: https://www.nps.gov/hove/index.htm

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Visited: May 2017

Nearby town: Aztec, NM

In the northwestern corner of New Mexico, you can find the incredible ruins of a village constructed nearly a thousand years ago by the Ancestral Puebloans.

First things first, these ruins were not built by the Aztecs! 😊 Early white settlers in the 19th century mistakenly believed that the Aztecs (the great ancient empire that inhabited the region around present-day Mexico City) must have built these impressive structures. But no, they were built and inhabited by the local Pueblo Indians.

These ruins were preserved by a homesteader and early town founder, H.D. Abrams, who owned the land the ruins sat on. Abrams was an amateur archaeologist and unearthed many of the artifacts that are contained today in the Park Visitor Center and Museum. The National Park Service eventually acquired the land from Abrams, and Aztec Ruins (by this time, the name had stuck) became a National Monument on January 24, 1923.

Aztec Ruins is a relatively small park that can easily be visited and explored in a few hours, and is a great place to pair up with a visit to nearby Mesa Verde National Park (across the border in Colorado). The Ancestral Puebloans built both these ruins and the impressive cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde.

Your first stop should be the Visitor Center. There are lots of artifacts to see and peruse, and a 15-minute film serves as a good introduction to the Monument.

Then take in the views of the entire structure. There are over 400 rooms in this complex. Approximately 300 people lived here year round, and these ruins were inhabited for around 200 years (from 1100 AD - 1300 AD).

Now take the half-mile loop trail that takes you in and around the ruins. The first stop is a reconstructed great kiva. These circular rooms were present in nearly every household and had great spiritual and familial significance to the Pueblos. Some villages, like the one here, also had a large kiva that would hold ceremonies and activities for the entire community.

This structure is reconstructed to look like what it might have back in its heyday in the 12th-14th centuries. You can go inside.

The trail continues through the ruins. This is a very neat place, you get a chance to really get up close and personal with the ruins. You can wander through the ruins to your heart's content.