My First Full Day at Hovenweep

On Monday, November 29, my first day of work at Hovenweep National Monument, I awoke to a fresh blanket of snow. About two inches had fallen overnight (well, that was our official record taken as one of my duties at the Visitor Center, equaling 1/10 inch of precipitation). 

View from my Bedroom

When I got up I was overjoyed to see the view from my bedroom in the employee housing area just a bit to the north of Little Ruin Canyon. The mesa top is occasionally broken by lovely canyons which hold a whole different ecosystem. Little Ruin Canyon by the house is about 85 feet deep.

Another View from my Bedroom

My little “roller skate” had its first covering of snow for the season as well. It had snowed in Michigan City before I left for the west but we were away the weekend that the snow had fallen and all we saw was a bit of snow on the ground, residue from the storm.

My Driveway

The dominant feature to the south and east of the park is Sleeping Ute Mountain. From any location in the entire region, you can orient yourself by locating the Great Warrior God. At nearly 10,000 feet, Sleeping Ute Mountain is nearly twice as high as my little piece of Cajon Mesa at 5,200 feet.

Sleeping Ute Mountain from Hovenweep Campground

So, work.!

I am one of three volunteers here at Hovenweep. Along with two park rangers (one interpreter and one law enforcement, etc.) and a maintenance/facilities manager, we are the entire staff.  It is a small park with the main Square Tower area and five "outliers"spread over about twenty miles of Cajon Mesa. Each day, I am scheduled half of that day at the Visitor Center desk. The other half of each day is devoted to patrolling the trails and interacting with visitors in the field. When I am on an "opening" shift at the Visitor Center I am responsible for opening the building, getting it ready for the day, setting up for the daily fee collection and sales for the Canyonlands Natural History Association sales outlet, collecting the daily weather data, raising the flag, and then anticipating the arrival of our first visitors. 

Hovenweep Visitor Center

On my first day, there was a good wait for those first visitors. The snow had made travel in the area challenging. It did, however, provide me an opportunity to peruse the park library and begin to ground myself in this amazing place. Our first visitors arrived late in the morning.


The afternoon was devoted to patrolling parts of the park. My first official walk in the Square Tower Group was wonderful. What is this place all about, anyway?

"Hovenweep National Monument was established in 1923 to protect 13th-century ancestral Pueblo standing towers and villages. The monument contains not only extraordinary examples of prehistoric architecture, but the landscapes in which they have existed for over 700 years. Hovenweep is made up of several distinct units that range in size from 14 to 400 acres, including the first protected archaeological site in the United States." 

Twin Towers (Little Ruin Canyon)

Here on the Cajon Mesa which ranges from 6,800 feet elevation at the north end and slopes to about 4,950 feet at the south end, are four distinct ecological zones. The mesa is cut in a number of places by canyons which have carved their way through the area. The caprock is called Dakota Sandstone, a porous material that played a key role in the human use of the region in the 1200s. Again, I am struck by the need to understand an area's geology and its critical function in coming to know the natural history, cultural history, and human settlement patterns of a place. Hovenweep's geology is, by no means, an exception. The porous Dakota Sandstone sits atop the relatively impermeable Burro Canyon Shale. At any point along a canyon wall where water seeping through the sandstone meets the shale there can be a seep or spring. These most often occur at the heads of the canyons cutting the mesa and it is at these locations that the Ancestral Puebloans established their villages, parts of which remain at Hovenweep. The springs, snowmelt, and potholes are the sources of water. In this high desert environment, a steady and dependable source of water was critical to the survival of the Ancestral Puebloans and all who came after them.

Seep Spring at Cajon Site (Allen Canyon)

Snow Melting at Square Tower Group (Little Ruin Canyon)

Icy Potholes in Slickrock Above Little Ruin Canyon

In patrolling the Square Tower Group Trail, the objective was to make sure the rocks that line the edge of the trail were all in place, to erase any footprints left by visitors who went off the trail, and to contact any visitors who were out enjoying the resources. It was a solitary patrol by myself and my personal guide, Jacqui. She is a volunteer with the Student Conservation Association and has already been at Hovenweep for six weeks. She taught me a lot as we were paired up for the day. We did erase a footprint or two, replaced a few trail bordering rocks, and left the prints of either a gray fox or coyote, a desert cottontail and an unidentified rodent for others to enjoy.

Gray Fox or Coyote Tracks

Rodent Tracks

There are a number of amazing ruins on the canyon rim in the Square Tower Group as well as several on the talus slopes of Little Ruin and Side Canyons.

Rimrock House and Eroded Boulder House

Hovenweep Castle

Stronghold House from Little Ruin Canyon

All along our patrol hike of the Square Tower Group I was fascinated with the plants. They feel like a link between this new place and the place I know best having spent the last five years in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Interestingly enough, many of the desert plants here at Hovenweep have close relatives living in the very arid foredune and oak savanna communities in the dunes. I will be doing an entire post about the plants and they way they anchor me in this new place.

Utah Juniper (Juniperus osteosperma)

Narrowleaf Yucca (Yucca angustissima)

Mormon Tea (Ephedra viridis)

Common Pricklypear (Opuntia erinacea)

To finish out the day, Jacqui took me to see the Cajon Group, the lowest elevation unit of the park (more about Cajon in a future post). 

Cajon Group Entrance Sign

From Cajon, one is afforded an amazing view of Monument Valley to the west.

Monument Valley from Cajon

And then...We went to pick up the mail. Some have asked for my postal address which is simply c/o Hovenweep National Monument, McElmo Route, Cortez, CO 81321 (in spite of the fact that the Square Tower Group and my house are in the state of Utah). Well, folks...Here is the mailbox.

Hovenweep's Mailbox

It is simply a drop box on the open range, about ten miles from the central unit of the park. It is double locked with a park key and a Postal Service key. The area is frequented by horses, goats, sheep, and cattle in the business of grazing. Quite a spot.

Back to the Visitor Center and then home. A good day was had by all!

My House at Hovenweep

Before I turned in for the night I had the lovely opportunity to see the colors of the sunset behind me glowing on the western facing side of Sleeping Ute Mountain.

Sunset Shining on Sleeping Ute Mountain