What a beautiful day, nothing but blue sky, in the 80's with a light breeze. We drove up to Dolores, CO. and then visited the Anasazi Heritage Center. Later we took off for our tour of the "Canyons of the Ancients". We spent several hours looking around ruins, pueblos that haven't been totally excavated or restored. Found an arrowhead at one location in a little wash where the water had recently washed away quite bit of soil and small rocks. Later in the day we went to Hovenweep National Monument. After visiting the visitor center we toured the dwellings of Little Ruin Canyon. Very different architecture than Mesa Verde. This canyon had many dwelling of all sizes, shapes and locations in the canyon wall or on the top of the mesa. The canyon is one large canyon then splits into two canyons. It's estimated that over 2000 people lived in the canyon settlement.
We returned to the RV Park around 6:00. The full moon tonight over Mesa Verde is awesome. Tomorrow we head for Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Indian ruin or pueblo in the "Canyon of the Ancients". Construction on this pueblo ended sometime around 1170AD, before much of the construction in Mesa Verde started.
The same pueblo, you can tell not much as been done with this dwelling, all the weeds growing inside all the rooms. Look in the distance in this photo you can see snow capped mountains.
This is a large (Great) ,kiva 47 feet in diameter. You saw our photos of the kivas at Mesa Verde, this one hasn't been excavated yet to find the bottom, fire pit, deflector, etc.
A few rooms that haven't been excavated.
A pueblo tower built on the mesa at the end of a canyon.
"Twin Towers" at Hovenweep. There was 16 rooms between the two towers.
"Stronghold House" at Hovenweep. Built on the edge of the canyon.
This is what remains of a tower at "Stronghold House". Notice the "Twin Towers" dwelling across the canyon and the large boulder to the right of the towers has a house built under it. Also in the upper right of the picture is another tower dwelling called "Tower Point". This dwelling has a commanding view up and down all canyons.
This is another dwelling that had 7 rooms and 1 kiva. Notice "Tower Point" across the canyon.
Another of the many dwellings in the "Little Ruin Canyon" , consisted of several rooms and 1 kiva. Notice across the canyon, the ruins of another tower called "Rimrock House",it was a rectangular tower, 2 stories high originally.
One of the canyons of "Little Ruin Canyon". The Puebloans vanished from this area about the same time as the Puebloans vanished from Mesa Verde, 1275 to 1285 AD. During the peak of its population in the four corners region, it's estimated more people lived here than what lives here now.
Ismay trading post on the reservation built around 1900.
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