Lowry Pueblo, Colorado, USA

Back in the summer of 1998, we were on yet another road trip to Utah when we decided to take a detour and investigate a possibly interesting dot on the road map outside of Cortez, Colorado: Lowry Pueblo. This area of the state is home to many Native American archeological sites, including the world-famous Mesa Verde, and it now enjoys a Canyons of the Ancients National Monument designation. This is Anasazi country (but please note that the preferred name is now “Ancestral Puebloan”). And although we’re fascinated by any kind of archaeological stuff, we don’t enjoy crowds and much prefer traveling off the beaten path when possible. We had never heard of Lowry Pueblo, so it seemed like our kind of place.

And we were not disappointed! On the day we visited, we were the only ones there. (I think the scorching heat and remote location had something to do with this.) It was a fabulous opportunity to climb around the ruins and take lots of silly snapshots (some of which I have yet to find and scan). We sat on the kiva wall and ate lunch, savoring the silence and imagining what life was like here centuries ago.

Lowry Pueblo is located on Bureau of Land Management land, and according to the BLM website, it was constructed about AD 1060 and was excavated during 1930-1936. At one time it had 40 rooms and 8 kivas.

You can learn more about the fascinating archeology of the Four Corners area here, including links to more information about Lowry Pueblo.

Note the old-timey film camera in Terry’s hand.