Hike to Sand Canyon Trail, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado

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One of the largest pueblos of the 13th century, Sand Canyon Pueblo, built between 1250 and 1280, contains at least 20 multi-family room blocks with 420 rooms, 90 kivas, and 14 towers. A spring runs through the center of the walled site that held up to 725 people. Construction was exacting, with care taken to shape stone, and some double and triple walls for stability. Families lived in clusters of rooms that included living, storage and work rooms and had their own family kivas. The community shared roofed plazas and great kivas, and towers often connected to kivas. By 1280, new construction had stopped and people began migrating out of the pueblo. Castle Rock Pueblo was built and occupied from the AD 1250s to the 1280s. The village is contemporary with the seven small cliff dwellings along the lower Sand Canyon Trail. When Crow Canyon Archaeological Center archaeologists conducted limited excavations at Castle Rock in 1993 and 1994, they found at least 16 kivas. While most kivas are circular in this area, one was rectangular—a building shape used by modern Hopi people. The village also includes 40 above-ground rooms, nine possible towers and a D-shaped enclosure. For more information on the science at Castle Rock Pueblo go to http://www. crowcanyon.org/publications/castle_rock_pueblo. asp Located near the south trailhead, Castle Rock Pueblo is built around a sandstone butte. Please respect this ancient village by staying on the trail. Saddlehorn Pueblo is located about a mile from the south trailhead parking lot and is located in a geological feature that looks like a saddle horn. This cliff dwelling has two rooms in the alcove and two structures on a pinnacle approximately 100 feet above the alcove. Please stay on the trail to avoid the collapsed walls and the midden. Some of the rooms at Saddlehorn may have been used for cooking and sleeping. The rooms on the pinnacle may have been “lookouts” or a place to communicate with neighbors. A kiva was partially excavated by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in the late 1980s and then backfilled. It has a main chamber, floor hearth, bench, southern recess, and ventilation system. Few artifacts were found, but the floor was covered with a thick layer of fallen roof material that included large pieces of burned roof beams. Tree ring samples from these beams mostly dated to around AD 1228–1232, with one from the AD 1250s. Pottery studies suggest that Saddlehorn Pueblo was likely lived in from around AD 1250 until about AD 1285. This may mean that most of the roof beams were recycled from an older building in the neighborhood. Tucked Away Two Story House is of one complete room are still standing at this site which is about two stories high and has one little window facing south. There is a doorway to the west with toeholds and a masonry ledge. There were about five rooms based on the outlines in the masonry rubble to the west. When archaeologists recorded the site in 1965, they found stone flakes and an edge-ground stone scraper. Pottery sherds identified as Mancos Corrugated, plain gray, white ware and Mancos Black-on-white were also recorded. This type of pottery may indicate that Tucked Away Two Story House was a home in the AD 1100s, but the masonry is more suggestive of the AD 1200s. House with Standing Curved Wall has a 38 foot long curved wall still standing with one well-constructed window. There are remnants of two north-south walls dividing the room. When archaeologists mapped and recorded this site in 1965, only two pottery sherds were found. One was plain white ware and one was from a jar handle. This site is the last and highest of the cliff dwellings on the Sand Canyon Trail. Wall Curves with Bedrock House is a small cliff dwelling with one nearly complete room and some wall remnants. The west portion of the site has a T-shaped doorway and a window facing south in the south wall. There is a second story doorway and two little windows facing south. When archaeologists recorded the site in 1965, pottery sherds were identified as Mancos Corrugated, Plain Gray, Mancos Black-on-white, Plain White, and Mesa Verde Black-on-white. These types of pottery sherds were made in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, AD 1100–1300. A pendant was also found. Double Cliff House was built in two ledges of the alcove. Pueblo people must have used a ladder to get to the two upper rooms. There is a window in one of the upper rooms. The stone masonry has been protected by the alcove and is well preserved. The upper ledge is about 40 feet long. Archaeologists recorded and mapped Double Cliff House in 1965. They found pottery sherds and stone tools that indicated the House was probably used in the thirteenth century, AD 1200s. Corncob House only had one alcove in which to build their home. The masonry walls have 3 feet of double-coursed rock in a wide, shallow Ushape with loose sandy trash behind them, as if to create a flat foundation for another structure or a platform. The midden in front of the site is eroded. Ancient corncobs, two yucca leaf strips tied in knots, and a piece of fiber or loose cordage were found when archaeologists excavated the site in 1965. Trails are rugged and unpaved with large areas of exposed rock. The southern trailhead leads to several loop trail options in Sand Canyon, Rock Creek, and East Rock Creek. Distance from top to bottom is about 6 miles and includes a steep elevation change of 700 feet involving 30 switchbacks.

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