Cortez CO - Hovenweep

Today (5/9) we went to Hovenweep. It's an area of abandoned buildings built by the ancestral Puebloans (formerly known as the Anasazi). The buildings are built out of rock and mud mortar and date from the 1200s. They built towers, storage, and multifamily units.


This is a house built into a big rock.


Most of the structures are right on the edge of a canyon. They lived there, they grew crops and built dams for irrigation and hunted local critters. And then they left.


The stone work is pretty amazing. They did good work. Why they left is not known. Could have been drought, war, famine, or just a desire to see what was around the next canyon.




Lizard on a rock.


Hiking into the canyon. It's a short down and then up. That's Jim and Kim uphill from us.


After the canyon we went to a winery. I did not like their wine so much.


But they had a great shop dog.


Tomorrow it's on to Mesa Verde.