Southwest Colorado: Canyons of the Ancients

We continued our exploration of the Four Corners region in Southwest Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

Can you see the tower in the middle of the photo?  That's the Painted Hand pueblo, dating from about 1200 AD.

Here is the tower in a closer view.

Several dwellings existed in this area, as well as the tower, which may have served as an advanced lookout for the nearby Hovenweap village.

A room whose walls have mostly fallen is located under the castle.

My intrepid explorers found a pattery shard with a basket weave motif.

Faint painted hands still exist there.  The pictographs are faded, but you may see the faint outline.

We also hiked the Sand Canyon trail.  The sandstone formations above are along the trail.

The ruins along the trail blend in with the sandstone walls.

Up close, we had a better view.

Perhaps the most interesting sighting was a cave that we spotted from the trail.  The cave was across a deep canyon, too far for us to reach in our limited time, and probably not accessible by any trail.

With binoculars, we were able to see a pueblo inside.