05/14/08 Hiking Rim Trail: (1.5 mile loop)
Overnighted at Wal-Mart in Farmington, New Mexico then headed for Cortez, Colorado first thing in the morning. Did some chores and then came on to Hovenweep National Monument.
I had been here some time in the past. Since I couldn't remember when I figured it was time for anohter go 'round.
The Rim Trail is an easy 1.5 mile loop around, duh, the canyon rim. Except for one section that dips down into the canyon and back up the other side, it's pretty flat.
There are a number of nice ruins including Twin Towers, Stronghold House, Boulder House and more.
05/15/08 Hiking Hackberry/Holly Groups: (1.5 mile loop)
Cold, windy and blustery with storm clouds this morning. The Hackberry/Horseshoe/Holly Groups are all at a turnoff about 4 miles from the visitor center with all the ruins on canyon rims.
The first one was the Horseshoe Group in about .3 miles. There were a couple of nice ruins there.
.5 miles further on on the same trail is the Hackberry Group. Several nicer ruins there.
Back on the road, the Holly Group is .8 miles away and by far the most interesting of the 3 groups. Several interesting ruins. The Boulder House appears to be growing right out of a huge boulder.
The Tilted Tower is just that. Built on top of another boulder the upper portion collasped, apparently when the boulder shifted, for whatever reason. The boulder is now at an angle and the rest of the ruin appears ready to slide off.
Drove another 20 miles to Canyon of the Ancients National Monument (Lowery Ruins). Sounds pretty impressive, huh? Wrong! The ruins consist of a series of rooms that would have been interesting except they built a roof over top of the ruins out of steel girders. That pretty much ruined the ruins for me. They did the same thing at Mesa Verde National Park.
There is an excellent Kiva with those same structures I've mentioned in the last couple of reports.