Hovenweep, a National Monument, is a late pueblo structure from the 13th century, and was our first stop on our driving tour on Wednesday. Once the place was home to over 2,500 people, dispersed among six prehistoric villages built between 1200 and 1300 AD. Multistory towers built on canyon rims show the skill of the builders, the ancestral Puebloans, a farming culture that occupied the Four Corners area from about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1300. We hiked the Square Tower Trail passing the six units, which originally spread out on a 20 mi. stretch on the mesa tops. The Twin Towers and Eroded Bolder House (see pic, the latter looking like a swallow's nest) and Tower Point with Hovenweep Castle are absolutely stunning.
Driving the Trail of the Ancients we stopped at a couple of points on the way, e.g. at the Mule Canyon Ruins (1000-1150) to see the kiva (pic) and remains of some other buildings.
Natural Bridges National Monument - our next highlight - consists of three natural bridges, formed by the river, not by wind and erosion as in the Arches NP. These natural structures appeared really massive and highly impressive. A loop goes through the park - with not much touristic traffic at this time of the year, but probably always less frequented and more pleasant to enjoy than the other big National Parks in Utah. After having studied the descriptions of the trails leading down to the bridges, we chose to hike to the foot of the first one, Sipapu Bridge (pic above and below), which proved to be a good choice. It was only a one-hour hike, a bit strenuous with steep slopes, stairways and ladders to get down. However, the view from the bottom, in the green river valley underneith the big arch was just overwhelming.
Horse Collar Ruin (1050-1300) - our next stop on the loop - offers a view of one of the best-preserved ancestral Puebloan sites in the area, including an undisturbed kiva.
The other two bridges, Kachina and Owachomo Bridge had trails going down as well, but for lack of time, we drove on trails, too. Shown below a panorama of Kachina Bridge and surroundings:
Continuing to Goosenecks State Park we suddenly found ourselves on a three-mile strip of unpaved road, the so-called Moki Dugway, which spiraled down Cedar Mesa (6,500 ft.) to the Valley of the Gods (4,200 ft) in a spectacular way, offering great views:
Goosenecks State Park, the next highlight, offered an observation plateau with striking views deep down into a canyon with the meandering San Juan River in the shape of a gooseneck. The San Juan River carves its way through the desert 1,000 ft. below, twists and turns for a couple of miles on its way to Lake Powell.
Arrived back to Bluff at 5:30 pm, had another delicious dinner at the Comb Ridge Bistro (there are not many restaurants in Bluff, but all of them seem to be good!) and are still wondering: can it still get any better?
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