Hovenweep National Monument
Including Some
"Outlying Ruins"
The primary road is a combination of dirt, gravel, and pavement and receives infrequent maintenance. The side access roads to the outlying groups are not maintained and are rough in places. Note that there are no directional signs to the outlying groups and you are advised to stop at the ranger station at the Square Tower group and pick up a map and directions. The roads were in reasonable condition when I visited but I still was glad that I had a 4wd with lots of ground clearance. The Cutthroat Castle ruin shown below was the only ruin that I visited that was not chained off to keep people from going in. I hope that everybody is as careful as I was to not disturb anything.. Even shallow digging or scratching in the earth can disturb artifacts and features that are important in their understanding.. The walls are quite fragile and cannot withstand the pressure of someone walking on them. .
The Hackberry and Horseshoe (shown below) were easy to get to and a passenger vehicle should do fine unless the weather has been bad causing mud or snow. You still have about a half mile easy walk to the two sites from the road.
The Holly site is quite impressive and contains many ruins built on huge boulders. The one below is interesting in that the bolder obviously moved sometime after the structure was built and most of the ruin fell down to the bottom of the canyon.
Holly was another site where I saw a beautiful tower constructed on a bolder in the BOTTOM of a canyon. Each of the outlying groups has a trail through the area. Although similar in terms of building material and location near a spring or seep, each has its own unique architecture and setting. Only limited archeological work has been done at Hovenweep.
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E-mail: ron@neartime.com