Here you’ll find the park’s visitor center, campground, and main park unit. We recommend you start your visit here – grabbing a park map, refilling your water, and stretching your legs on the Square Tower loop trail. Access from nearby towns and highways is paved to the Square Tower Group.
Hovenweep Castle and Hovenweep House perched above Square Tower, the unit's namesake.
NPS photo
Although there are signs at each major intersection for Hovenweep, we still recommend having written directions for your visit.
NPS photo
Getting There
We recommend using a paper map and good directions to find your way. If you must use GPS, try entering in "Hovenweep National Monument Visitor Center." If your GPS is taking you on unpaved roads (besides small, 0.25-sections of gravel), then you may be going the wrong way. Driving time from the nearby towns of Bluff and Blanding, UT, and Cortez, CO, is about one hour.
Restrooms, water, trash receptacles, and picnic tables are available at the visitor center. Similar amenities are available at the campground, just 0.25-mile down the park road from the visitor center.
On July 1, 2014, Hovenweep became the seventeenth International Dark Sky Park. Hovenweep is the first dark sky park to span two states.
The Square Tower Group Community
This unit contains the largest collection of ancestral Puebloan structures at Hovenweep. The remains of nearly thirty kivas (subterranean circular rooms, often with spiritual significance) have been discovered on the slopes of Little Ruin Canyon. A variety of other structures, from room blocks to towers to complexes, are perched on the canyon rims, balanced on boulders, and tucked under ledges. It's possible that as many as 500 people occupied the Square Tower area between 1200 and 1300 CE (Common Era).
Square Tower is perched at the head of the canyon, just below Hovenweep House (pictured) and Hovenweep Castle.
NPS photo
What’s in a Name?
Square Tower, for which the group is named, is a three-story tower built on a boulder at the head of Little Ruin Canyon. A nearby spring would have been an important resource for the inhabitants of Hovenweep. To increase water storage, a checkdam was built above the spring in order to slow storm runoff. The unique location and appearance of Square Tower fuels speculation that it was a structure with spiritual significance.
Life at Square Tower
The residents here provided for themselves by hunting game; gathering wild plants, seeds and pinyon nuts; and dry-land farming crops of corn, squash, and beans. Water came from rain and the spring. They probably used check-dams and terracing to collect and divert water.The people of Square Tower were probably part of the larger migration that took place around 1300 AD. Most, if not all, people in the Mesa Verde and Upper San Juan region traveled south and found new homes there. Today, the modern Pueblo tribes continue to live to the south of Hovenweep.
Part of the Park
The Square Tower Group unit was included in the 1923 Presidential proclamation that designated Hovenweep as a national monument.
Printable Publications
Download and print the Little Ruin Trail Guide for more information. These trailguides are also available at the visitor center.
The most popular structure in the monument, Hovenweep Castle is featured everywhere the monument is mentioned. If you can muster the 1 mile roundtrip hike from the visitor center, this ancestral Puebloan structure is a must-see.
Hovenweep House does not have the same fame as Hovenweep Castle, but may have actually been the larger complex in the Square Tower Group. Hovenweep House is perched on the canyon rim above Square Tower and completes the canyon head view.
While Rimrock House may not be the destination, is certainly is a worthwhile part of the journey. In pondering the purpose of these ancestral Puebloan structures, consider that Rimrock House was probably not a house at all. The structure has no room dividers within, but still boasts a rim-side perch.
Square Tower, for which the structure group is named, sits at the canyon head. This tall, this tower has mystified archeologists, rangers, and visitors alike. Why was it built? Whatever the answer may be, we can all appreciate the tower’s expert craftmanship and the skill of the masons who built it.
The first ancestral Puebloan structure you’ll see in Square Tower Group. Perched at the mouth of the canyon, Stronghold House looks a formidable sight. The name is indicative of its placing and appearance, but we don’t know its actual use.
A popular photo spot, Tower Point is accessed via a short side trail from the main loop. The trail is close to the tower, and the point gives fantastic views of the canyon and Sleeping Ute Mountain.
Twin Towers is a famous set of structures in the Square Tower Group. Easily studied from the overlook, this pair of ancestral Puebloan structures were constructed less than one foot apart on the canyon rim.
Unit Type House is the name archaeologists gave to a basic building plan they noticed early on at sites in the Southwest. This one is a perfect example – a few living and storage rooms and one kiva – possibly home to a family or a clan.
