Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

A tiny pocket of southwestern Colorado with cultural history around every corner

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument contains more than 6,000 recorded archaeological sites.

From cliff dwellings to pot sherds, we can piece together clues of what life might have been like for the Southwest’s earliest residents. About 10,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians started hunting and gathering in the region. By 1500 BC, people called the Basketmakers arrived, planting corn, building pit houses, and weaving baskets. And around 750 AD, the Ancestral Puebloans found their way to the Mesa Verde region and beyond, eventually clustering their villages into pueblo-style communities.

The largest pueblo in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument stretches across 10 acres and includes 420 rooms, 100 kivas, a great kiva, and a plaza.

Visiting the monument

The main sites in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument are located on the monunent’s scenic byway, which encircles the monument. These are some of the highlights you’ll find along the route:

• Canyon of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum — A great place to start your trip, and a wonderful introduction to the cultures that called this region home.
• Lowry Pueblo — Around 1060 AD, Ancestral Puebloans constructed Lowry Pueblo, starting with a few rooms and eventually building it out to include 40 rooms, eight kivas, and a Great Kiva. Today you can see some stabilized structures by following a short, wheelchair-accessible trail.
• Painted Hand Pueblo — This small village of about 20 rooms gets its name from the hand pictographs painted on a nearby boulder. Since the site has never been excavated, you’ll have to imagine what it looked like when the Ancestral Puebloans were farming, building, and living in the village hundreds of years ago.
• Sand Canyon Pueblo — This is the big one. With 420 rooms, 100 kivas, and 14 towers, Sand Canyon Pueblo was, at one time, a bustling village.
• Sand Canyon Trail — Catch a glimpse of several structures housed in alcoves along the Sand Canyon Trail. The six-mile route links Sand Canyon Pueblo to McElmo Canyon (one-way), but you can make it into a loop hike instead. Hike the trail

Getting there

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is sandwiched between Hovenweep National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. The closest towns are Dolores and Cortez, Colorado.