Road to Painted Hand Pueblo

The Painted Hand Pueblo is one of the few publicized Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites in the Canyons of the Ancients in southwest Colorado. The dirt road leading to the trailhead is about 10 miles north of the Hovenweep National Monument headquarters along County Road 10.

In the fall of 2011 the turnoff is marked with a new sign that provides a map of the Canyons of the Ancients and the backcountry guidelines. The small bird symbol to the right is the marker that Hovenweep Monument uses to mark the outlying sites. In this case the Cutthroat Castle Pueblo trail is along this same road.

The dirt road is bumpy in places but is normally drivable by most vehicles for the 1 mile to the Painted Hand trailhead. The Cutthroat Castle trail is about 0.5 miles further. On a mild late December day, I chose to hike along the road. As I hiked I kept an eye out for rubble pile ruins sites in the mostly sagebrush fields along the way.

After about 0.7 miles there is a closed side road on the left. In this area there is a short trail that leads to a small rubble pile ruins site. Not counting this short stop it, took about 0:25 minutes to arrive at the Painted Hand trailhead.

From the trailhead area there is a good overall view of the Painted Hand site. The large round tower on the south side stands out and is the symbol of the Canyons of the Ancients. It is about 0.25 miles to the point where the trail descends down through the cliffs to visit the other structures and rock art. The total hike from the trailhead is 0.75 miles.

Staying along the rim, there are views of some wall sections on a very tall boulder. Building on top of boulders seems to be a common style in the Canyons of the Ancients area.

On this hike I continued north along the rim to an overlook of another boulder site that I had noticed while hiking in the canyon bottom below the Painted Hand site. The access for the trail to the canyon bottom is near the Cutthroat Castle trailhead. This trail appears on the park map as Road 4531f. This site is about 0:15 minutes of hiking past the Painted Hand site.

There appears to be a clear outline of a circular structure with other rubble on the boulder and some on the ground. It looks like a number of the desert plants have taken root among the rubble even though it is on top of a boulder.

I don’t think his boulder site has a line of sight to Painted Hand, but there is a line of sight to a medium sized pueblo that is about 1 mile further north up the canyon. My total hike took 2:00 hours on a 46 F degree late December day. I was the only visitor during my hike.

Northeast Hovenweep Canyon

The west rim of Hovenweep Canyon is frequently visited as the site of the Painted Hand Pueblo Trail, one of the few publicized trails in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado. The trailhead is about 1 mile along an east turn off of County Road 10 about 10 miles north of the Visitor Center for Hovenweep National Monument.

 About 0.5 miles south of Painted Hand is the upper trailhead for the Cutthroat Castle Trail, one of the outlying Hovenweep sites. A short distance south of the trailhead there is an old road that leads down into Hovenweep Canyon and heads north.

After about 1.5 miles, at the point where the old road crosses the dry wash, a good Ancestral Pueblo ruins site can be found with some exploring to the east, on the first level of the mesa top area overlooking the drainage. I visited this site before on the hike I called Painted Hand Neighbors. On this hike I continued north along the mesa top area. It has taken me about 1:00 hour to arrive at the Painted Hand Neighbor.
 

I climbed two more levels of mesa top and walked along the east canyon rim overlooking the northern part of Hovenweep Canyon. The canyon floor has a level sagebrush field and it looks like a forest fire has burned some of the canyon floor trees. There is a side canyon to Hovenweep Canyon coming in from the east.
 

Viewing the east side canyon from above, there is a gap in the mesa top area between Hovenweep Canyon and Negro Canyon to the east. The old road that is visible below is the extension of the trail that I started my hike on. That road appears to connect to the well maintained gravel road that enters the north end of Negro Canyon and is used by the gas and oil well activity.

I think that gravel road has a normally closed gate like the Mockingbird Mesa area. Hikers can enter but vehicles are blocked. From above, I spotted a ruins site near one of the cottonwood trees that is visible on the floor of the side canyon. I didn’t notice any ruins sites where I walked on the mesa top.
 

Walking along the mesa top far enough, there is another old road that climbs up the mesa top area between Hovenweep and Negro Canyons. This road provides a relatively easy descent to the canyon floor and then leads very close to the ruins site. The ruins site isn’t visible from the trail, so keep an eye out for the light green cottonwood tree.

The rubble piles are very high at this site, perhaps these were multi story structures. The site doesn’t appear to be based on any large boulders and has small drainages passing between the structures. The cottonwood trees indicate that there is water here, but I didn’t see any flowing water.

There are two large circular structures on the south side where there are some wall sections still intact. It took me 2:15 hours to arrive at this site, counting my visit to the Painted Hand Neighbor and slow walking and scanning on the mesa top. I spent about 0:45 minutes visiting this large village site.

I followed the trail for my return hike; it leads all the way back to the Cutthroat Castle trail head. On the return I sighted a small storage granary ruin high on the west side of the trail. In the same area, on the east side there is a small alcove with a wall across the front. My return hike from the northeast canyon floor village took 1:40 hours. My total hike took 4:40 hours for about 7 miles on 66 F degree late May day. I carried and drank 3 liters of water. I was prepared with repellant for biting gnats but wasn’t bothered by them.

Painted Hand Pueblo Neighbors-Hovenweep Canyon

The Painted Hand Pueblo Trail is one of the few publicized trails in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado. The trailhead is along the marked east turn off of County Road 10 about 10 miles north of the Visitor Center for Hovenweep National Monument.

Further along the same rough road is the upper trailhead for the Cutthroat Castle Trail, one of the outlying Hovenweep sites. Just south of the trailhead there is an old road that leads down into Hovenweep Canyon and heads north, following parallel to the creek bed and passing the area below the Painted Hand Pueblo site. The Canyons of the Ancients doesn’t have many official trails but there are many old roads to follow while exploring this outdoor museum.

I started my hike at the Upper Cutthroat Castle Trail Head and followed the rough road down into the sagebrush and greasewood canyon bottom area. After passing below the Painted Hand Pueblo, I noticed a possible collapsed boulder based ruins site about 0.2 miles further north, but continued on.

After about 1.5 miles, the trail crosses the dry wash and continues north. About 50 yards past the wash crossing I turned east off the trail and started climbing toward the mesa top area that is between Hovenweep Canyon and Negro Canyon. I was surprised to see a fairly large south facing ruins site about half way to the mesa top. Part of a circular tower similar to the Painted Hand tower stands out from a distance.

There are several structures with wall sections still standing. The site is north and east of the Painted Hand site, about 1 mile away. The vicinity of Painted Hand is visible but I couldn’t see the site for sure. I could see the collapsed site that is just to the north of Painted Hand.

Like the other Hovenweep area sites, this site seemed to have several towers with a mix of square, circular and perhaps a D shaped. There are large piles of rubble here also, but the site seems very compact. It also looks like there are some perimeter walls at the rim but I didn’t see any structures on the area above the rim. I didn’t see any trails nearby or evidence that this site gets visited very often.

My original hiking goal was to get to the mesa top and continue to the rim of Negro Canyon and explore the area. I was lucky to stumble on this large site. It took about 1:00 hour to reach this very good ruins site.

It was a short walk across the mesa top between Hovenweep and Negro Canyons. From the west rim of Negro Canyon I could see a green tank and there is a dirt road running along the canyon bottom. Across the canyon on Mockingbird Mesa I could see two of the Carbon Dioxide facilities and the large power lines. I scanned along the far canyon rim with binoculars but didn’t spot any ruins structures.

There was one boulder based collapsed ruins site below the cliffs near the point where I first arrived at the rim and also a circular petroglyph that was visible in the same area. I continued south for about 0.3 miles along the rim and then turned west and found my way back to the original trail. My hike took 5:00 hours for about 5 miles on a relatively cool 65 F mid June day. The biting gnats that swarm in June didn’t appear until the day warmed up later in the afternoon. I carried and drank 3 liters of water.