The trip to Hovenweep and Mesa Verde has been long overdue. Hovenweep has been a place of interest for me for many years now. Seeing pictures of the ancient towers and structures captivated me. I purposely didn’t check too much into the details. I just wanted to get there and explore. And, in this circumstance, it was probably the best that I had that attitude of flexibilty.

I simply woke up one day and slowly began packing my camping gear. I think I left around 6 pm and still have several hours of summer sunlight, so I wasn’t too concerned about any sort of deadlines or time constraints. I got to Willow Springs near Moab and set up camp for the night. I was pretty tired, but managed to get some photos of the night sky before going to bed.

I got an early start to my drive to Hovenweep National Monument today. The drive is just over two hours, but I didn’t mind. This was completely new territory for me. This was my first time, that I can remember, driving through Southeastern Utah. It made me wonder why I never explored this part of the state before. It is quite the distance from where I live in Northern Utah, but it actually is a beautiful drive. There is so much to see in this region, and this initial trip sparked my interest. I have been back about two dozen times since this trip exploring Blanding, Bluff, Comb Ridge, Cedar Mesa, and beyond!

When I was nearing Hovenweep, I got a little distracted and completely hit the deepest pot hole in the world. It must have been 700 ft. deep because my whole car seemed to break and explode! I heard a bunch of loud crashing noises and decided it would be prudent if I pulled over to do a thorough analysis of my tire and front bumper. I immediately noticed a chunk of the plastic surrounding my tire well gone. The front bumper was intact, but there was a huge gash underneath the bumper where it connects to the metal part of my car. My tire was surprisingly still fresh-a-firm as a sweet Georgia peach! I got back in the car and more cautiously continued onward to Hovenweep.

I got to Hovenweep and went straight to the campground. I found a pretty good spot overlooking a small canyon and was happy that I could now hike without the worry of finding a camp site later. I then went to the visitor center and spoke to a ranger about all I could see. The ranger gave me a map and told me that most people love to see the Square Tower Ruins. I guess there are multiple districts at Hovenweep spread out over the mesas and canyons and I wanted to see all of them if I could during this visit. I had all of today and a half-day tomorrow, so I had plenty of time to have an adventure!

I took the ranger’s advice and hiked the loop trail at the Square Tower Ruins. I already have a post on the Square Tower Ruins, so I won’t go into too much detail, but these are some of the most impressive ruins I have ever seen!

I then hiked to the other grouped ruins: Holly Group, Hackberry and Horseshoe Group, and Cajon Group. There is another group of ruins called Cutthroat Castle, but according to the ranger, “Those are off limits due to a dispute with the land owner who owns part of the road going out there.”

Here are some pictures of the other groups.

This morning would have been spent exploring some of the other grouped ruins at Hovenweep, but I discovered that I saw almost everything there is to see at Hovenweep. Of course, there is much more to see, but I wanted to see the “main stuff” here and I did yesterday.

My drive today would take about two hours again. I needed to get to the Mesa Verde Visitor Center and get a tickets for the ranger guided tours for the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House. After I got my tickets I went to the Morefield Campground and found a good spot. Here are some pictures of the campground and facilities.

After resting for a bit I drove to the Cliff Palace.

The Cliff Palace tour was incredible! You should see my post on it!

You should also check out my post on the Balcony House!

I loved these tours and so would you!

The rest of my time was spent driving around the loop trails seeing anything and everything I could see!

For some reason my allergies were acting up and I didn’t really feel like buying some medicine at the park store for $10. So, I drove an hour back into Cortez to buy some food and medicine. They had a Walmart and even though I don’t like shopping there I got provisions to last me another day.

I had a few hours of sunlight left and decided to do a few more things in Mesa Verde. I went up to Park Point (the highest point in the park) and enjoyed the sunset. I looked towards the direction of the Cliff Palace and could almost envision what ancient live would have been like. I could see people all over the mesa tops farming and living. This is a beautiful place!

I drove back to camp and went to bed!

Today was BUSY! I woke up and drove to Durango, Colorado! It kind of had a Moab type feel to it. I didn’t spend long here as I wanted to get to Silverton to check out some of the mines there!

If you have never drove through the Million Dollar Highway, I highly encourage you to do so! This is a massive stretch of highway that has incredible mountains, meadows, human history, towns, rivers, and hot springs! I could probably do this drive 100 times and never get tired of it.

The city of Silverton was really neat! I stopped and walked around town for a bit and visited a museum where I spoke to a man about the mining history. He had a wealth of knowledge and told me some good spots on where to go. I visited about 10 mines. I will post pictures of some of them.

My next stop was at Ouray, Colorado. This is another mountain town that is surrounded by towering granite peaks. I stopped at Box Canyon State Park and did the hike to the falls. It was a very fun and unique stop that I would love to do again.

It felt strange to be in the red rock parts of Southeastern Utah then the snow-capped mountains of Colorado. The distance between these two places isn’t that much. It’s only a few hours by car yet the geology is strikingly opposite.

After this, I drove up to Grand Junction and ate at some random Mexican food truck and drove back to Northern Utah.

This was such a fun trip! I saw so many things, it’s difficult to put it all down in one post. I drove over 1,000 miles during this trip and spent more than 20 hours in the car!