Avoiding the Crowds: Hovenweep Nat'l Monument 5/28/10

According to a recent article in the LA Times, Hovenweep is #10 on the list of least-visited National Monuments. Receiving only 27,855 visitors in all of 2009, Hovenweep, likely due to its proximity to the staggering Mesa Verde National Park, will always be a requirement for obsessed stampers, but never a destination of its own. And while the ruins are haunting and worth seeing in their own right, there's not enough at the site to justify a drive into the Southwestern abyss. Located just over the Colorado border in a particularly rugged part of Utah, Hovenweep is, at least for the average traveler, a single collection of dwellings (the Square Tower Group), accompanied by several others (Holly, Horseshoe & Hackberry, and Cutthroat Castle) that are accessible only by Chaco-like dirt roads. They're so remote, in fact, that the NPS literature (two separate maps) fails to mention where they might be. So for the time being, the twenty-mile area of mesa tops and canyons will be limited to a single walk along the Little Ruin Canyon.

Before embarking on that stroll, there is the visitor center, an extremely humble little building that, when compared to others in the park system, is really no more than a glorified closet. And given the limited visitation, anyone would be hard-pressed to convince the park service to expand. The film (requiring headphones so as not to disturb, uh, the ranger on duty) is pretty good, and a worthy supplement to the sparse literature. Hovenweep, like so many Ancestral Puebloan sites, is shrouded in mystery, although archeological studies estimate that as many as 500 people occupied the Square Tower area as late as 1300. They are also fairly certain that the people of the area raised corn, beans, and squash, and the recovery of numerous examples of pottery, jewelry, and clothing indicate a relatively well-developed culture. Why they disappeared from the area is anyone's guess, though, as with other parks and monuments in the Southwest, it is assumed that strife and drought played major parts in the drive to push onward.

Deciding against the longer Rim Trail Loop (we had to make Natural Bridges, after all), I instead walked along the Tower Point Loop, which stays on the visitor center side of the canyon, topping out at a reasonable 1/2 mile. Along the way, "hikers" (stumblers, in my case) will see the Stronghold House, which is assumed to have had a defensive purpose, though no one knows for certain. Indeed, damn these people for failing to leave behind a chain of emails explaining themselves. One can see (quite clearly, in fact) the Rim Rock House and Round Tower across the canyon, and the Twin Towers provide quite a sight. Again, why the towers? According to the literature, they could have been anything from observatories to signaling stations, though I'm inclined to favor the ceremonial chamber thesis. Any structure that holds vast differences from the rest, for me, has some sort of spiritual dimension, like a more vertical kiva.

The best part of the short hike is the Hovenweep Castle, located at the very point where you turn back towards the visitor center. There's a little more "ruin" to the ruins here, as well as a prime spot for great photos and quiet contemplation. Though it must be said - have any of these sites really fostered a deeper reflection on the past? No, neither of us plop down on the earth, clear out the world, and meditate on the lives of the ancient ones, but I always take a place like Hovenweep as a home tour of sorts, only without the usual trappings of modern life. These people, rough and tough as they likely were, need not be romanticized out of existence. Culture, only possible once mere survival has been semi-conquered, is little different from our own, reflecting a need to understand one's place in a vast world. The people of Hovenweep were neither more "in touch" nor less so, only the usual products of their environment, adapting as needed and pushing boundaries when possible. Sure, it's a graveyard of sorts - we'll provide our own soon enough to the generations of the future - and we remain curious because they met the same end in store for us all.

FINAL RATING

7/10