Hovenweep National Monument, spanning across the Utah and Colorado border, is a lesser-known yet incredibly unique addition to the National Park System. It preserves six prehistoric villages built by the Ancestral Puebloans between A.D. 1200 and 1300. Its stone towers, many perched dramatically on canyon rims and balanced on boulders, are awesome! It feels remote and untouched, offering visitors a quieter, more intimate experience.
Hovenweep can be visited in a few hours. Visitors should begin at the visitor center, where they can pick up a map and information to explain the ancient ruins they will be seeing. Though there are a few sites to explore, the main hike is the Square Tower Group Loop Trail behind the visitor center, where guests can see 11 towers and structures! The park has limited services, and guests should pack a picnic and fill up on gas before entering.
I’m Cheryl, and I live in the West! My husband and I write travel guides and spend 70 days a year on the road, including exploring the Four Corners area. We think Hovenweep is a hidden treasure (with few crowds!) and we can’t wait to help you plan your trip.
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This itinerary is written for first-time visitors to Hovenweep. While some visitors want to spend a full day to see every ancient ruin structure in the park, we think you can see this park properly in 2-3 hours. I’ll give you our ideal plan, but also give you a few bonus things to do if you want to spend more time.
If you are visiting Hovenweep, there is a good chance that your trip may also include Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, Chaco Canyon, and/or Canyon De Chelly. Ancient ruins are awesome, and each of these sites offers something different… but ruin fatigue can set in. That’s why we recommend visiting this park for a couple of hours and then moving on to more of the awesome sites in the Four Corners. Liz- backlink!
Because of its remoteness, the park sees only about 40,000 visitors per year. This means you’ll avoid the crowds but also need to be self-sufficient. There’s no cell service, food, or gas stations, and almost no shade.
Hovenweep is open year-round, but you should be aware of the temperatures and plan accordingly. We think March-April and October-November are ideal because the temperatures are more moderate. On our last trip, we visited in late April, and it felt plenty warm as we hiked around the park.
Stop #1: Hovenweep Visitor Center. It has flushing toilets, a water refill station, and a small gift shop. They have a great information board that includes important items such as daily temperatures, wind speed, birds they’ve heard recently, and the daily ranger programs.
You can pick up the park brochure, plus a few individual maps for the sites you want to visit. These are really important because the ruins do not have signs explaining what you are seeing.
There’s an 18-minute park movie, that I thought was interesting. I learned that this area was more fertile than many of the areas in the Four Corners (I noticed there were more plants here), but also more prone to flooding. It also talks about how these ancient people lived and the purposes of the structures they built.
GOOD TO KNOW: Unlike many national parks that are open 24 hours a day, this park closes. The trails open at sunrise and close at sunset. The visitor center is also closed on certain days of the week, depending on the season you are visiting. You can view the current hours on their website.
13,000 years ago, nomadic people inhabited the Four Corners region. They were hunter-gatherers at first, but eventually progressed to becoming farmers. Around the year 200 AD, they began building pit houses in the canyon. Around 1100 AD, the canyon had a much larger population, and the Ancestral Puebloans began building the towers and structures we can see today. We don’t always know the exact purpose of these structures, but archaeologists believe they were used for defense,
worship, community gatherings, and storage.
Stop #2: Square Tower Group Loop. This 1.5-2 mile loop hike is going to take you to see the very best of Hovenweep! It will take most people 1.5 hours, and I rate it a moderate hike because you have to climb in and out of the canyon at one point. The rest of the trail is flat and easy.
PRO TIP: There is NO shade on this hike. Wear sun protection including a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, and even a long-sleeved sunshirt if you have one.
If you aren’t a hiker or have mobility limitations, the first 300 yards of this trail is paved and accessible and will get you to a viewpoint where you can get a great view of the many stone structures perched on the edge of the canyon.
If you have the ability and the time, I HIGHLY recommend this trail! It reminded me a lot of looking at ancient castles in Germany, except these are made of a pretty red sandstone. What also sets these ruins apart from others in the area is that many of the towers are round in shape. At other sites, most of these structures are square-shaped (except the kivas). I also enjoyed how tall many of them still are- multiple stories!
The ranger recommended we hike the loop counter-clockwise, which we did, and agreed with. This starts the hike with excellent views of the towers and saves the canyon for the end.
Our favorite sites included
FUN FACT: The wood beams remaining in the towers have tree rings, and it’s how archaeologists know how old these structures are.
After completing this trail, you could eat a picnic at the tables at the visitor center (if you packed a lunch) or head on to your next adventure.
If you want to explore more of the park…
The Square Tower Group Loop trail that you just did has the most intact structures in the park. But if you have a high clearance vehicle, ask a ranger about outlying sites. They are on bumpy dirt roads and are 4-8 miles away. The Holly Unit features a petroglyph sun panel. The Horseshoe and Hackberry Units have examples of “D-shaped” towers. The Cutthroat Castle Unit is situated among pinyon trees. The Cajon Unit overlooks Monument Valley 50 miles to the Southwest and is a good spot to watch a sunset.
If you are a major hiker…
Walk the Square Tower Group trail. Then, hike the Holly Trail 4 miles one way, starting at the campground. From Holly Ruins, walk north along the access road 1 mile to the Horseshoe and Hackberry Units. Hike the 1/2 mile trail to the ruin sites and return to the campground via the Holly Trail. This hike is approximately 12 miles round trip.- NPS website
I didn’t do this hike, so I have no opinions or recommendations on it. I love a good desert hike, but 12 miles in the heat seemed a bit extreme to me, and there is so much more to do in the Four Corners area. We saw what we felt was the best of Hovenweep and then left.
Hovenweep is in a dark sky area, which means there is very little light pollution, so it’s a great place to view the stars. While we were there, they were celebrating Dark Sky Week and were doing a few nightly programs where they were setting up telescopes and teaching the visitors about the stars.
I didn’t attend this program, but I have attended star programs in other national parks and have loved my experience. If one is going on during your visit and you’ll be there at night, I highly recommend it!
–When to Start Your Day: The park actually has hours that vary by season, so make sure to check the park’s website before you visit. Because it gets so hot,
especially in the summer, start your day as early as possible to beat the heat.
–What to Wear. A wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, and a sunshirt (something light with long sleeves to protect you from the sun). There is very little shade here.
Also, make sure you have some sturdy tennis shoes with good traction.
–What to Bring. Binoculars to see the ruins better, a bottle of water,
and trekking poles (if you use them for stability).
Check out our recommended gear for more.
–For Your Safety. There are very few railings to protect visitors from falls into the canyon. Be careful. Also, make sure to drink plenty of water and bring salty snacks.
–Road Conditions. The road through the park to the visitor center is paved and accessible to any vehicle, including RVs. The road to the other sites is
a rough dirt road, and high clearance is recommended.
–Cell Phone Service. I did not have cell reception in the park..
–Bring Your Doggo. This is a pet-friendly park, and leashed dogs are allowed
on the trails and in the campground.
–Services Within the Park: There are no gas stations or food within the park. There are water refill stations and restrooms with flushing toilets at the visitor center.
The closest towns are all about an hour away and include Cortez, Colorado, and Bluff and Blanding, Utah.
Although there is a campground in Hovenweep, you can stay in any of the cities listed above. For dinner, we enjoyed eating in Bluff, Utah, at the Comb Ridge Eat and Drink. The outdoor seating was fun and our fish and chips were great! I also enjoyed my salad.
Hovenweep was a delightful surprise on our recent week-long trip to the Four Corners. We loved that these ancient structures looked like castles and were perched on the edge of the canyon. We especially liked that it wasn’t crowded and required little preparation. We just showed up and enjoyed our walk around the Square Tower Group Trail.
But this is just one of many great spots to visit in the Four Corners Region. For even more fun, check out Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Petrified Forest, Chaco Canyon, and Canyon de Chelly!
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