Hovenweep

Last Saturday, we took advantage of free admission and visited Hovenweep. Christina's first pick was Arches to see Delicate Arch, but I thought the long walk in the heat would be a little too much for Mrs. Nine Months Pregnant. We compromised and went to Hovenweep and ended up walking more than three miles, the estimated round trip hike to Delicate Arch. Oh, well. Hovenweep allowed dogs, so Bella made the journey with us.

It was an interesting time to visit the home of some of Utah's most famous Indian ruins, and we were actually quite careful not to tell anyone we were from Blanding. It seems all citizens of Blanding have been lumped into one group: Disrespectful callous grave diggers who enjoy weekly games of dodge the Indian skull and pay for our oversized Dodge truck with proceeds from our artifact sales. Fun to be stereotyped, huh?


This was actually my first trip to Hovenweep. They claim San Juan County has somewhere around 100,000 Indian ruins (it's a big county). I've been to a lot... maybe 100, but no where near 100,000. And, in all the ruins I've visited, I never taken more than photographs. In fact, I haven't even collected an arrowhead, despite hundreds of hours in the hills, hunting, camping, hiking or just being there. In fact, being outdoors, and occasionally finding a ruin I didn't know was there, or visiting one I'm fond of may be one of my favorite parts of living in Blanding.


Still, in honor of our local week of fame, I included some of the photos I've taken at some ruins through the last year or so, in addition to the pictures from Hovenweep last weekend.

The top photo is an experiment I did to create a panorama from some pictures I took at Hovenweep. The ruins are from the Square Tower Complex in Hovenweep, with the Sleeping Ute mountain range visible in the background.

Square Tower complex in Hovenweep

Horseshoe Complex in Hovenweep

Holly Complex in Hovenweep

Holly Complex again.

And Holly, again.

As an interesting side note, the Hovenweep ruins were all built on the surface, specifically right on the edge of cliffs. Notice the doors come out on the cliff side, not the surface side. There are also ruins on the surface, not near cliffs, and ruins built into the cliff face (the last pictures here are a good example. I don't know if there is a correlation, meaning they started on flat ground, moved to the cliff edge and finally moved into the cliffs (or vice versa). Most of the ruins I have visited have been those built into cliff walls, suggested the peoples that built them were scared and built into the cliffs to help defend themselves. Why? I don't know. I'm not sure any one does.


Non-Hovenweep ruins in San Juan County
Non-Hovenweep ruins in San Juan County


Non-Hovenweep ruins in San Juan County


Non-Hovenweep ruins in San Juan County

Non-Hovenweep ruins in San Juan County