Holly Ruins Trail at Hovenweep NM

We drove out to Hovenweep National Monument in Utah to hike the 8 mile round trip trail from the campground up to the Holly Ruins area located in Colorado. There is minimum elevation change (about 350 ft overall), but there is lots of sun exposure, so we completed this hike in the morning. We only saw a couple of other hikers on this trail.







View near the trailhead. The trail goes through that crack in the rocks

It is a short narrow slot

I was able to walk normally, but did keep my shoulders pulled forward.

stone steps down from the slot

The trail follows a wash with some interesting rock formations along the way

cairns mark the way through the wash crossings

sun rising over the hills

There were some short shady areas along the trail

There is another short narrow slot (a little wider than the one near the trailhead) near the end of the trail.

A gate in a wire fence marks where the trail enters the Holly Ruins area of Hovenweep National Monument in Colorado.

One of the towers at Holly Ruins

more towers among the boulders

a lovely mohave mound in bloom

lizard

Hiking back, this area is below the slot near Holly Ruins

we hiked through some green sand

Part way along the trail is the pile of rocks from a collapsed ruin

an interesting boulder with a large hole

approaching the slot near the trailhead

this slot seemed narrower on the way back up

After our hike, we were too hot to do the two mile loop around the ruins near the Visitor Center at the Hovenweep National Monument in Utah. We did walk our a short ways to overlook some of the ruins before leaving.