Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
From El Malpais, we went north to Colorado to check out Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Unfortunately, we couldn't see any of the canyons because they were basically invisible from the road and the monument is devoid of any road we were able to drive on. And we aren't picky when it comes to roads! The "roads" looked more like eroded stream beds...not possible to traverse without a high-clearance vehicle. This was all very disappointing because I had been wanting to see this NM for a year.
Fortunately for us, right across the Utah/Colorado border, there is a tiny national monument called Hovenweep, and that had some actual trails with actual views of actual canyons. So our trip was not a waste, but instead a great time in a gorgeous area. Here are some ruins I saw from the trail.
Here is something called (for reasons that will forever be shrouded in mystery) Eroded Boulder House.
Here are the Twin Towers, with Eroded Boulder House subsiding gracefully into the canyon below them.
This picture is sort of an excuse to photograph the sky. However, in the structure you can see that the walls are two courses thick. All these buildings were built in the late AD 1200's.
This is the largest building in this particular complex, which is strewn along Little Ruin Canyon. There are several other canyons/pueblos in the vicinity, but they are harder to reach. This is at the head of the canyon, close to the "seep" that constitutes the permanent water source that supported these pueblos. It is called Hovenweep Castle.