Hovenweep National Monument
National Monument, Proclaimed 1923. Six Separate Ancestral Puebloan Village Groups Straddling The Colorado Utah Line, Built Around The Heads Of Canyons In The Thirteenth Century And Abandoned Within A Few Generations. An International Dark Sky Park. · Cortez, Colorado
Hovenweep is six groups of stone towers standing at the heads of shallow canyons on the Colorado-Utah line, built in the middle of the thirteenth century by Ancestral Puebloan people who had lived in this country for centuries and who left within a few generations of finishing them. The masonry is the thing: square, round, oval and D-shaped towers built on boulders and on the very lip of the canyon rim, fitted so precisely that they have stood for seven hundred years with no mortar worth the name. What they were for is still argued about - granaries, lookouts, ceremonial buildings, astronomical markers - and the Park Service is honest that nobody knows. The Square Tower Group has a two-mile loop and a small visitor centre; the other five units are down unpaved roads and see almost nobody. It is also an International Dark Sky Park in some of the emptiest country in the Lower 48, and almost every visitor drives away before the stars come out.
McElmo Route, Cortez, Colorado, 81321, United States
The monument is open during daylight hours year-round and the Square Tower Group trail is open at all times. The visitor centre keeps daytime hours with reduced winter hours and can close on short notice - this is a very small and remote operation. The campground is open year-round and is first-come. THE FIVE OUTLYING UNITS - Holly, Horseshoe, Hackberry, Cutthroat Castle and Cajon - are reached by unpaved roads that are impassable when wet and unsuitable for low cars.
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