Hovenweep National Monument ⓘ

The NPS acknowledges, with respect, that Native people have been successful stewards of the land within the park since time immemorial. The NPS understands that the monument is located within the ancestral and traditional homeland of the:

Pueblo of Acoma Pueblo de Cochiti Hopi Tribe Pueblo of Isleta Pueblo of Jemez Jicarilla Apache Nation Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians Pueblo of Laguna Pueblo of Nambé Navajo Nation Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Picuris Pueblo Pueblo of Pojoaque Pueblo of San Felipe Pueblo of San Ildefonso San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe Pueblo of Sandia Pueblo of Santa Ana Santa Clara Pueblo Santo Domingo Pueblo Southern Ute Indian Tribe Taos Pueblo Pueblo of Tesuque Ute Indian Tribe Ute Mountain Ute Tribe White Mesa Ute Tribe Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo Pueblo of Zia Zuni Tribe

Archeological evidence shows that people lived at Hovenweep at least 10,000 years ago. The earliest people were nomadic Paleoindians who visited the Cajon Mesa to gather food and hunt game. These people used the area for centuries, following the seasonal weather patterns.

The towers of Hovenweep were built by ancestral Puebloans, a farming culture that occupied the Four Corners area from about 500 to 1300 CE (common era). Similarities in architecture, masonry, and pottery styles indicate that the people of Hovenweep were closely associated with groups living at Mesa Verde and other nearby sites.

As soon as the ancestral Puebloans started cultivating crops, they had to learn to cope with drought. They carefully selected drought-resistant, north-facing slopes for their fields; built terraces and checkdams to protect the soil; and stored extra food for dry years. They also performed ceremonies designed to maintain the natural cycles of rainfall. In the late 1100s and early 1200s, drought persisted. Tribal consultants from some descendant communities indicate that even drought-resistant farms were failing, and Hovenweep was built to help. Some structures here cluster around springs. These may have been spaces to send prayers to the sea for moisture. Other structures tower above the canyon rims. These may have been spaces to look toward the mountains and pray for rain. Portholes, petroglyphs, and whole structures are aligned in interesting ways with the movement of the sun. Details like these may have helped time seasonal ceremonies.

Despite the careful measures to rebalance the climate, drought continued. At the same time, new groups were moving into the Four Corners region, intensifying the human impact on the landscape. Vibrant new Pueblo communities were growing to the south in the Little Colorado River Basin and along the Rio Grande. For many reasons, over several generations, the ancestral Pueblo people followed their traditional cultural practice of migration to build new homes south of Hovenweep. Although they no longer live within the national monument, today's Pueblo, Zuni, and Hopi people are the descendants of the ancestral Pueblo culture and consider Hovenweep as part of their heritage. They continue to visit Hovenweep and other evidence of their ancestors throughout the Southwest.

Native people knew the location and importance of Hovenweep since its construction, but the first written reports by European explorers came in 1854, when W. D. Huntington led a Mormon expedition into southeast Utah. The name "Hovenweep" is a Paiute/Ute word meaning "Deserted Valley." Pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson adopted this name in 1874. We still use the name "Hovenweep" today, although we now know that Native people consider these canyons dwelling places of their ancestors and important sites for prayer. They are not deserted. Between 1917 and 1918, J.W. Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution surveyed the area and recommended the structures be protected. On March 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding proclaimed Hovenweep a unit of the National Park System.

It's easy to imagine the desert as a barren and lifeless landscape, but there are thriving communities of plants and animals here. Shrubs, trees, cacti, and grasses all use special adaptations to flourish with limited water. Monsoon rains bring impressive wildflower blooms. For thousands of years, people like the ancestral Puebloans have learned to live in the desert by nurturing and gathering helpful plants.

Hovenweep is located on Cajon Mesa in the heart of the Great Sage Plain, which stretches from Cortez, CO, to Blanding, UT. As the name suggests, sagebrush is one of the most abundant plants in this arid, high desert zone.

The highest and wettest point on Cajon Mesa is northeast of Cutthroat Castle at 6,800 feet, with an average annual precipitation of 15 inches. From there,the mesa slopes gently to the southwest. It reaches its lowest and driest point near Cajon Ruin at 4,900 feet, where average annual precipitation is about 6 inches.

About 325 different species of plants live at Hovenweep. They grow in four distinctive vegetative zones: pinyon-juniper forests blanket Cutthroat Castle; sagebrush interspersed with juniper trees are found around Holly, Horseshoe and Hackberry; sagebrush is dominant at Square Tower; and Cajon is surrounded by scrubland.

Plants are essential to all other life in the desert. They are the foundation of the food web. Pinyon pine trees produce calorie-dense and highly nutritious pine nuts enjoyed by many animals, especially the pinyon jays. Hackberries are another essential food source for Hovenweep's birds. Juniper trees produce berry-like cones eaten by jackrabbits and coyotes. Plants also provide shelter. Wooodrats and packrats use the fibrous leaves of yucca in their nests, and many animals enjoy the shade of junipers and pinyon pines. Plant roots also work alongside the biological soil crust to hold the loose, sandy soil in place. This helps prevent erosion and dust storms.

Tribal consultants from some descendant communities believe the ancestral Pueblo people built the towers at Hovenweep for prayer. The people here may have spent most of their time conducting ceremony, while nearby farms and villages provided food and supplies. The ancestral Puebloans ate mostly cultivated crops, but they also gathered wild plants. For those who know the desert well, plants offer all kinds of helpful resources, including nutritious food, seasonings and flavorings, medicine, rope and fiber, soap, dye in dozens of colors, and indicators of water and soil quality. Many of the plants that sustained the ancestral Pueblo people still grow at Hovenweep today. Modern Native people still gather plants for a variety of uses and offer clues about how people found nourishment in the desert 700 years ago.

A sea of rippling rock, cut by canyons and marked by mountains, this landscape is a testament to the powers of wind, water, and time. Isolated mountain ranges called laccoliths dot the horizon in all directions. Potholes catch rainwater for living things big and small. Biological soil crusts let plants thrive. From the first Paleoindian hunter to modern farmers, all lives here are shaped by the rock.

Hovenweep is part of a region called the Colorado Plateau, a high desert covering the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Ninety percent of the Colorado Plateau is the San Juan River Basin, or land where water drains to the San Juan River. This drainage carved the winding canyons in Hovenweep, giving shelter and water to plants and wildlife, and later people.

Within the basin and plateau, Hovenweep is located on Cajon Mesa. Mesa means "table" in Spanish and refers to a wide, raised landform with a flat top. The flat top of Cajon Mesa is tilted slightly to the southwest. Elevations near Cutthroat Castle reach 6,800 feet but fall to 4,900 feet near the Cajon unit. This elevation change means Cutthroat Castle has higher rainfall and more trees than Cajon.

At Hovenweep, the top rock layer is Dakota Sandstone. Dakota Sandstone is made up of yellow/gray sandstone, mudstones, and a few thin beds of coal. This layer represents transitions from river to swamp to marine conditions and was deposited 30-70 million years ago in the late Cretaceous period. Ancestral Puebloans used the sandstone to make manos and metates, tools used to grind corn. This is also the layer where they gathered the masonry blocks to build Hovenweep's famous towers and structures.

Below the Dakota Sandstone is Burro Canyon Formation, the only other rock layer, or stratum, visible in Hovenweep. Burro Canyon Formation is made of white conglomerate, green shale, mudrock, and sandstone layers with interspersed pebbles and cobbles of chert as well as limestone and quartzite. This layer was deposited by an ancient river and floodplain over 100 million years ago in the early Cretaceous period. Ancestral Puebloans used rocks from Burro Canyon Formation to make tools like chert knives and arrowheads.

Hovenweep’s two rock strata are perhaps the most significant features of the park. These two layers act as a sponge and funnel for water, an essential resource for life in the desert.

When rain falls, some water collects on the ground in potholes. The rest soaks into the porous Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the water hits the Burro Canyon Formation, which is much denser than the Dakota. The water cannot travel down throught the Burro Canyon Formation, so it flows horizontally instead. When the water reaches a cliff edge, it seeps out of the rock and forms a freshwater spring. Springs were essential to Hovenweep's earliest people, who hunted and gathered here. Springs were also essential to the ancestral Puebloans who may have prayed for rain here in the 1200s. Tribal consultants from some descendant communities explain that water can be a channel to carry prayers. The springs at Hovenweep are part of a watershed that connects all the way to the Sea of Cortez, so they could serve as an access point for prayers to reach this essential source of moisture. Today, springs remain sacred to many Native communities. The springs at Hovenweep connect descendants to their ancestors who built these towers.

The red-brown loess soils at Hovenweep today were blown here by southwestern winds less than 10,000 years ago. This soil contributed to a major lifestyle change for the ancestral Puebloans, from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Composed of fine-grained sandstone and iron oxide, this soil supported crops of corn, beans, and squash for hundreds of years. Native consultants suggest this agricultural lifestyle is the reason Hovenweep was built as a place for ceremony to call the rain. Today, the same rich loess soil supports alfalfa, beans, wheat, and safflower for farmers in nearby Montezuma Valley communities.

Birds are most numerous in cottonwood and willow vegetation along streams and water sources. Look for ravens on standing walls and in alcoves. In the spring, keen eyes will spot baby owls poking their heads out from the nest, with mom and dad nearby. On your way to the park, look for raptors, like hawks and golden eagles, on the tops of telephone poles.

Cold blooded reptiles like snakes and lizards also thrive here, using the abundant sunlight to keep their bodies warm. The most common lizards are the side-blotched and sagebrush lizards. The most common snakes are the gopher snake, midget faded rattlesnake, and striped whipsnake. Amphibians are not common, found only near streams, springs, and rock pools. There are no fish.

An official species list is available from the Northern Colorado Plateau Network.

Read about some of the most interesting and common animals found in the park.

Though you may have difficulty spotting one, listen for the howls, barks, whines, and yips of the coyote. While their calls may send a shiver up your spine, these creatures are not to be feared and are likely more afraid of you! Their soul-piercing howls communicate location within a group or family. Other vocalizations may defend territory, call for pups, and protect dens. Coyotes are some of the most adaptable creatures in the world. Originally found in the northwest, coyotes now occur everywhere in the continental US, successfully taking over the former range of their cousin and major predator, the gray wolf (Canis lupus).

Watch for cottontails hiding in the brushy desert scrub. Cottontails are named for the white patch of fur on their tail that resembles a cotton ball. They raise this white tail when danger is near, which serves as an alarm signal to other cottontails. These rabbits can run up to 20 mph in a zigzag pattern to escape predators! Cottontails belong to the order of mammals called rodents - a group of animals whose teeth never stop growing! Rabbits use their sharp, ever-growing teeth to nibble twigs and grasses- their favorite foods. These furry critters keep themselves cool in the hot desert sun by radiating body heat through their large ears.

This large wasp with a metallic blue-black body and orange wings can grow up to 3 inches long. Tarantula hawks (Pepsis sp.) are so named because, other than humans, they are the tarantula’s main predator. When a female is ready to lay her eggs she finds a tarantula and attacks, stings, and paralyzes it so that she can drag it back to her burrow. There she lays a single egg on the tarantula’s abdomen, exits the burrow, and seals the chamber. When the egg hatches the tiny grub feeds on the tarantula until fully grown by which time the spider is dead. Watch out for these powerful insects! They are much more venomous than the tarantula they hunt and have one of the most painful stings of any insect around.

The largest bird of the crow (Corvid) family, ravens stand up to a foot tall! Ravens are considered among the most intelligent of all birds. They can learn to imitate a variety of sounds including the human voice and their curious, observant nature will be apparent to anyone who takes the time to notice. Ravens have a diverse appetite which can include carrion, mice, lizards, small birds, snakes, insects, and berries. Perhaps it is their broad diet that allows them to thrive in a number of different habitats ranging from treeless tundra to mountain forests to the desert canyons here at Hovenweep.

Look for these lizards darting and dashing around in search of food during summer days. Unlike most lizards, which employ the “sit-and-wait” hunting method, whiptails are active foragers. These lizards are easy to identify as their tail is up to 2.5 times as long as their body! Whiptails flick their forked tongues out into the air an average of 460 times an hour. The Jacobson’s organ, located on the whiptail's tongue, sends vital information about food, courtship, and communication directly to the brain.

Never approach or handle wildlife of any kind. Keep all food stowed, especially in campsites.

Wild animals often carry deadly diseases, including hantavirus, bubonic plague and rabies, and may become aggressive without warning. Do not approach animals to take photographs and teach children not to chase or pick up animals.

Hiking trails are lined with rocks to provide natural boundaries. Stay within the rocks and behind barriers to help us protect the cultural and natural history of Hovenweep. NPS photo

Hiking is the only way to see Hovenweep’s impressive ancestral Puebloan structures. All of Hovenweep’s trails are designed around the structures. They also offer sweeping views of the surrounding area and closer looks at Hovenweep’s geology and variety of plants. Respect and Protect You must stay on the trail at all times. Stepping off the trail could damage fragile cultural sites or fragile desert ecosystems. Trails are closed at night. You must be off trail by sunset and cannot be on trail before sunrise (times vary by season). Do not touch or enter any structure. Not only are they significant cultural heritage sites, but they are also unstable and not fortified. Be Prepared: Learn more about safety at Hovenweep. Check the weather to know what to expect. Bringing a pet with you? See our restrictions and tips. Read about park regulations .

Distance (round-trip): 0.32 miles / 600 yards / 0.5 kilometers Average Time: 10 – 30 minutes

The sidewalk path to the Canyon Overlook starts at the visitor center and winds to the rim of the canyon. The overlook provides scenic views of several strucutres in the Square Tower Group and the surrounding landscape, including Sleeping Ute Mountain. Metal placards identify native plants along the way and signs at the overlook discuss the structures. A free trail guide is available in the visitor center. From the overlook, you can continue on the unpaved Square Tower Loop Trail.

This trail begins at the Canyon Overlook and loops around the Square Tower Group. A free trail guide is available in the visitor center. The loop trail is primitive, passing over slickrock and packed dirt, and the edges are lined with rock. As you wind around the canyon, you pass within 5-10 feet of most of the Square Tower Group structures, allowing an uninterrupted view of these architectural wonders. You can add the Tower Point section near the middle of the trail. Part of the trail enters and exits the canyon to loop back to the Canyon Overlook, with steep elevation changes. You can avoid the steep section by taking a right at the start of the loop and hiking out and back along the northeast rim of the canyon.

From the campground: A trail leads from the campground (across from the fee station) to the Square Tower Loop Trail. The trails meet on the north side of the canyon, between the canyon crossing and the Canyon Overlook. The campground connector trail adds 0.5 mile / 0.8 kilometer, round-trip.

Distance (round-trip): 0.82 miles / 1.32 kilometers Average Time: 1 hour Hiking to Hovenweep Castle along the Square Tower Loop Trail allows you to see the structures of Square Tower Group (some from a distance) with a shorter hike and little elevation change. From the Canyon Overlook, follow the primitive Square Tower Loop Trail to the right (west) to Hovenweep Castle. Stay to the right at any trail intersections. At Hovenweep Castle, hike a little past the castle to see Hovenweep House and Square Tower. Return the same way you came, staying to the left at trail intersections. Tower Point can be added to this trail.

Tower Point is a small section of trail on the north side of the canyon, between the Overlook and Hovenweep Castle. You can add this section to the Square Tower Loop Trail or the Hovenweep Castle Hike. Tower Point is named for the remains of a tower at the point where two canyons meet. Adding this section gives you a different perspective of the Square Tower Group with Sleeping Ute Mountain in the background.

(read more about Cutthroat Castle ) Location: Trailheads are down an unimproved dirt road that is 8.5 miles from the visitor center. Stop by the visitor center for directions and road conditions.

From the upper trailhead, the trail to Cutthroat Castle winds through a hip-height slot between boulders, then opens up to regular primitive trail. The trail descends through open country, down a sandy wash, and along a slickrock edge, where it ends among the structures at Cutthroat Castle. Most of the trail provides sweeping views of neighboring Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. At the site, the trail winds around and through a cluster of structures (but not into them), giving you the chance to see Cutthroat Castle from many angles. Cutthroat Castle is also accessible from a Lower Trailhead.

The road to reach Cutthroat Castle’s lower trailhead is very rough and requires high clearance and 4-wheel drive. Stop by the visitor center for more information. The trail to the structures is much shorter, but relatively steep and primitive. The trail connects to the main trail at Cutthroat Castle and winds among the structures (but not into them). The trail ends in the cluster of structures, giving you the chance to see them from many angles. Return to your vehicle on the same path.

(read more about Horseshoe and Hackberry ) Location: Horseshoe and Hackberry are conveniently on the same trail. The trailhead is down an unimproved dirt road that is 4 miles from the park visitor center. High clearance and 4-wheel drive are strongly recommended. Stop by the visitor center for directions and road conditions.