Images of Hovenweep National Monument –eastern Utah, taken in April 2016.

Hovenweep National Monument sits on the Cajon Mesa, part of the Great Sage Plain, and protects five ancient communities that were built over 800 years ago by the Ancestral Pueblo People.

Each of the five units have well preserved ruins but I was most amazed by the Holly and Little Ruin Canyon areas that each boasted a building erected on what can be best described as a “rock island” in their respective canyons. It was interesting to see how each structure was constructed to suit the topography of the individual rock bluff. In each case these buildings were part of a bigger community, the largest of which was in Little Ruin Canyon where another oddity resides, Eroded Boulder House. This structure was assembled in a huge boulder sealing off a small cave-like space to create an enclosed area.

One thing that surprised me when I visited the Cajon Unit, the southernmost unit of the monument, was that I had a view of Monument Valley in Arizona. At over 70 miles to the southwest I could clearly identify all of the formations I had seen on my trip there in 2008 including East and West Mittens, Merrick Butte and King on his Throne. I had never expected to see Monument Valley on this trip but it was a pleasant surprise!