Tag Archives: Hovenweep National Monument

Not Quite Roundup Time

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Out here near Hovenweep National Monument the vegetation is sparse and water more so. In land that seems so inhospitable there is a strong ranching tradition. If you pay attention you can still see cattle spread out over hundred’s if not thousands of acres. They’re rangy, long-horned, fleet as a deer and people-wise. You can see one then drive for miles before seeing another, yet they’re there and when it’s time they must be rounded up. A job that requires locating, herding and gathering them for shipment to the meat markets back east.

That ‘s what these structures are for. Holding pens with spaces to separate the cattle as needed and chutes to load the cattle onto trucks to be hauled away. The area around Hovenweep is filled with small narrow canyons that drain what water there is from places like Cajon mesa up on the Utah-Colorado border into streams like McElmo creek and the San Juan river, creating terrain that is a very difficult environment to work in. Collecting the cattle means hunting through this country and getting them back over the hills and through the valleys to collection points like this one. A long, tough, hot job.

This cattle business is not for the faint of heart as the ranchers battle the desert with all its hardships and try to keep their heads above water, if there was any. These are tough folks and many of them have been doing this for generations, somehow managing to keep it working and kind of productive. Like the beautiful but harsh red rock country it feels like there will always be someone out here trying to make a living. The country alone, with its bands of colors and incredible shapes, makes some of the struggle worthwhile. The occasional dollar helps too.

For the traveler passing through none of that is apparent. They are more intent on watching the buttes and mesas, the intense color of the hills and the wide open spaces, thinking more about getting to the next town. The holding pens that are so important to the rancher are just another feature to take in on the way to somewhere else, another view of the southwest, seen, enjoyed and forgotten in a moment. But for the photographer and someone who loves everything about this country, it is more than that. It is another story to attach to the image and add to the portfolio that is the experience of the Southwest. Life as hard as this shouldn’t be forgotten.

Dark Passages Golden Doorways

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Not far from the small town of Pleasant View Colorado, just a few miles East of the Colorado – Utah border there are the remnants of an ancient Pueblo called by the incongruous name of Lowry Pueblo. It was named after an early area homesteader named George Lowry, history doesn’t relate why, and it wasn’t excavated until the early 1930’s. It was built around 1060 AD and last thought to be occupied during the 1300’s. It is located about 100 miles North of Chaco Canyon. They, those whose business it is to think about these things, believe it housed anywhere from 40 to 100 individuals. The Pueblo is now part of The Canyons of The Ancients National Monument which also includes other sites such as Hovenweep National Monument. That’s about as much history as I can fit into one paragraph, thanks to Wikipedia.

The real part of going to a place like this for me, once you get past all the factual stuff, is what is it feels like to walk around there and touch the stone walls and feel the closeness of the rooms, the cool darkness and realize you are standing in the same place that people stood a thousand years ago. This pueblo is one that you can enter and go through the rooms and walk down narrow dark passages towards the center of the building. The hallways have walls that are higher than your head, maybe seven to as much as ten feet tall on either side, which must have felt like canyons to people who were much shorter than we are today. They twist and turn and have well-worn stone steps that go up and down levels until you reach the center of the building where the Great Kiva is. The stone steps are worn down slightly in the middle, where you would place your feet to move up and down the steps and it must have taken many, many trips to wear down the steps to the point where it is noticeable. Given the fact that many were probably barefoot or wearing woven sandals of some type this kiva had to have seen a lot of use.

A kiva this size wasn’t just used by the 100 fulltime residents, there had to be a huge number of visitors from the surrounding area and from as far away as Chaco and points further south to participate in what ever uses the kiva was put to. The golden doorway in the image above is the entrance to the Great Kiva. There was no one else here the day I visited so I had the place to myself. I sat down on the sand floor with my back against the stacked stone walls and listened. I wanted the ghosts to talk to me, to hear the sound of the drums and singing and watch the different ceremonies being performed, but it wasn’t to be that day, all I heard perhaps was a few whispers on the wind.

Part of the enjoyment of traveling in the late fall like this is that many times you can experience a place such as Lowry Pueblo the way it must have felt by the people who first discovered it. You are not influenced by others who dash in, look, quickly read a pamphlet then leave for the next stop. You don’t have someone feeding you the canned story of the site, even though it is done with all the best intentions, you can simply take in your own impressions, fill in the spaces with your imagination and perhaps commune with the original inhabitants in your own way. A place like this with its dark passages and golden doorways lets you do just that. I highly recommend it.

High Drama Low Desert

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HighDramaLowDesert4386Hovenweep Spring Storm                   click to enlarge

Spring is when we get some of the most dramatic weather of the year. All that meteorological stuff starts working with highs and lows and pressure cells and barometric irresponsibility, and things like low pressure instability coupled with really scary-bad advisories from people like NOAA and other folks who sole aim is to scare the bejesus out of you when all you’re trying to do is have a nice day.

Add being in place so far removed from what we’ve come to think of as normal, like you know, McDonald’s, Wally’s World, the mall and you get what we call in the photo business “High Drama”.  There is barely a road to this place and if hadn’t been for four-wheel drive you wouldn’t have gotten here at all. Passing burnt out hulks of automobiles with the desiccated remains of their occupants lying nearby has an off-putting effect, and begins to make it seem reasonable that your companion begins rubbing ashes on her face and chanting her death song and she’s not even Native American and you’ve got the makings of an interesting day.

There is a very physical presence to these storms. As the front moves in everything goes quiet. The insects cease making their small sounds, birds stop flying and immediately begin seeking shelter under the nearest rock, you can feel the pressure change on your skin, sometimes your eardrums feel like you’re cresting a mountain pass and then pop suddenly adding to the thoughts of your impending demise. It’s a total rush actually.

This image is of a storm that blew up in moments while we were visiting a really cool place called Hovenweep National Monument. It’s located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Romantic but desolate. Bring your own lunch and plenty of water, there isn’t even a vending machine out here and be prepared to experience nature in its rawest form. It is hard to imagine that folks made their living out here at one time. It is a forbidding place filled with hardships and one doesn’t have to ponder too long on why they would suddenly decide to split and seek a gentler more productive place to live.

However if drama is your thing and I guess by now you know it is mine, this is a place you want to visit. If you crave new experiences, or at least different ones than the gym and your favorite watering hole you’ll find it here. The range of phenomenon runs the gamut of blistering sun, wind-driven sand caressing your face, and the occasional intensely torrential rainstorms then silence so loud it makes your ears hurt. And that’s when things are calm. However underneath all the drama there is the undeniable, unrelenting beauty of a far away place that isn’t home. There aren’t that many places left where you can experience the exotic but you can here, especially if you’re lucky enough to be there in the middle of one of their spring storms. What more could you ask for?