~ Hovenweep & Canyons of the Ancients
Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep National Monuments occupy the landscape west of Cortez, Colorado and on over into southeastern Utah. The entire area is dominated the Sleeping Ute Mountains, still a sacred site to Native Americans today and obviously important to the Puebloans who built many structures facing the mountains. Hundreds of archaeological sites have been recognized in this fertile area of the Four Corners region and clearly the ancestral Puebloans knew how to farm and live in this landscape. An excellent visitor’s center for Canyon of the Ancients provides interactive displays about the ancestral Puebloans and explains a lot about them and about the archaeology that has opened that world up to us. The visitor’s center will help you decide which locations are best to visit, based on your time and ability to get around. Hovenweep occupies several canyons on the western edge of Utah and has its own visitors center and campground. It is easy to drive between Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep. At Hovenweep you find a more personal, closed-in relationship between the landscape and the ruins. It’s a peaceful place to spend a couple of days. Some of the most amazing architectural challenges are seen in the remnants of buildings erected hundreds of years ago.
