[Four Corners Region, CO, Sep 6, 2023]

Due to the cliff dwelling tour schedule and the closure of the Wetherhill Mesa section at Mesa Verde National Park, we found ourselves with a full free day in the remote southwest corner of Colorado. What to do? I had already done the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton. Although the weather wasn’t that great when I did it, I still figured there must be other things to do in the region, as remote as it was. After a little bit of googling, we found two things to occupy our day: Hovenweep National Monument and Four Corners monument. They were about 2 hours apart from each other and 2 hours away from Mesa Verde, so they formed a perfectly spaced loop for a day trip.

On our way out of the park, we finally managed to stop by the visitor center.

An impressive statue right outside gave us a very good idea of how the ancestral Puebloans descended into their cliff dwellings using the tiniest foot- and hand-holds in the cliffs. They sometimes even carried things with them. Now that we had descended into two dwellings ourselves and knew exactly how hard-to-reach they were, we were in disbelief.

Hovenweep National Monument preserves a variety of structures built by ancestral Puebloans between A.D. 1200 and 1300. They were related to the groups living at Mesa Verde at the time. They built circular and square towers, D-shaped dwellings and many kivas using skillful masonry. The fact that the buildings remain standing after more than 700 years is proof of how carefully they were constructed on the canyon edge.

We are not sure how the ancestral Puebloans used the buildings at Hovenweep. The striking towers might have been celestial observatories, defensive structures, storage facilities, civil buildings or homes. While most towers had remnants of kivas, their actual function remains a mystery. We hiked the 2-mile trail that weaves in and out of the canyon to get up-close to the buildings and admire them.

The village was abandoned sometime in the 1300s, just like the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. The reasons for that are still not entirely clear but they seem to be a combination of resource depletion (drought) and warfare. Hovenweep and Mesa Verde remained untouched until European settlers moved into the area in the mid- to late- 1800s.

We enjoyed the hike through the village ruins but it was getting hot and there was no shade, so we were happy to be back in the car. The drive to Four Corners was rather monotonous; there really was nothing out there!

Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet here. And that is really it. You can pose with each one of your limbs in a different state if that’s your thing. There is a vendor market around the monument, with multiple booths where you can buy arts and crafts made by the Navajo. We probably spent a total of 10 minutes here, long enough to take some photos.

We ate a yummy late lunch/early dinner in Cortez, CO, on our way back to Mesa Verde. It was a long day of driving to some remote, obscure sites but it was worth it!