2015-04-19 Canyon of the Ancients & Hovenweep

It's been a few days.  Vaughan came down with a cold and it was snowing so we spent the last few days taking it easy.  Friday we drove out to Durango but didn't stay - it was snowing so heavy on our way back we could barely see the road. Saturday we waited for the snow to melt and just chilled out.

Today, Sunday, it was back in the 60s and sunny so we went to the Anasazi Heritage Museum and then on to Canyon of the Ancients and Hovenweep National Monuments to see the pueblo ruins.

Lowry Pueblo was constructed around 1060 AD and lived in for about 165 years. Part of this has been covered to help preserve it.

This was taken down inside the pueblo.

The kiva below is one of the largest in the area (47 feet in diameter).

Painted Hand Pueblo was built around 1200 AD. This was another one we had to crawl down the side of a cliff to get to. There were about 20 rooms in this area but only small remnants of walls remained and a few petroglyphs.  The tower below is a Tuwalanki (Hopi word for lookout tower).

At one time there were rooms under the tower as well.

Our next stop was Hovenweep with its many ruins (1230 AD) surrounding Little Ruin Canyon.  Most were on the rim top but a few were down in.  A two mile hike took us along the top of the rim and then we had to hike down in and up the other side to get back.

This is Twin Towers - it originally had 16 rooms.

Tower Point stands out on a peninsula that looks out over the entire canyon - you can see more ruins on the other side of the canyon behind me.

The next 2 photos are of Hovenweep Castle.

Square Tower is down in the canyon and the one on top is Hovenweep House.

Boulder House was down in the floor of the canyon. Pretty cool huh?

 They had a great view on the top of the rim!

Here is the hike down in - going up the other side was worse - my poor knee!

Now for the nature shots - 

Last but not least was this field of deer.