Cajon Group

Cajon may be small, but quite a few structures are packed into this canyon head.

NPS photo

Cajon (pronounced Cah-hone) is Hovenweep’s most southern and lowest elevation outlier site.

Perched on the canyon rim at the southern edge of Cajon Mesa, Cajon has spectacular views of prominent natural landmarks. The trip is well-worth the effort to take in the dramatic views and remarkably preserved structures.

 

 

Visiting Cajon

Getting There

Stop at the visitor center for updated road conditions, directions, and a map.

Cajon is located off of a Navajo Nation dirt road, 9 miles south of the Hovenweep Visitor Center. Most of the journey is paved, 2.9 miles are maintained dirt road, and the last ¼ mile stretch is unmaintained two-track. We recommend a high clearance vehicle.

Some walking is required to see Cajon. Visitors park at the trailhead and take the short, unpaved trail around the area. The trail is 0.2 miles roundtrip.

Available Services

There is no restroom, campground, visitor center, trash receptacle, or water available at the Cajon site, so please come prepared. All of these services are available at the Hovenweep Visitor Center.

 

Visit With Respect

Hovenweep protects significant cultural sites. These places continue to be an important part of the Pueblo peoples' culture. When you visit, be respectful, and follow the regulations that help protect this special landscape.

• Stay on defined trails at all times.
• Do not touch or enter any structure or archeological site.
• Leave everything where you found it. If you do find an artifact, leave it be and tell a ranger.

 

Features & Archeology

The stunning view of the landscape is perhaps the most striking feature of Cajon. On a clear day, visible in a sweeping arc from east to west are: Sleeping Ute Mountain, Shiprock, the Carrizo Mountains, Monument Valley, Bears’ Ears, and the Abajo Mountains. This view may have been an important component of ceremony for the ancestral Pueblo people.

People built structures here in Pueblo I, but the area was most used during Pueblo II – III, about 900 to 1300 CE (common era). The later part of this period saw an extended drought here in the Four Corners region, which may be the reason people built the spectacular towers here.

Life at Cajon

Farming was essential to the ancestral Puebloan diet, culture, and social life. Pueblo people use a variety of methods to cope with this region's low rainfall, but the prolonged drought that peaked in the late 1200s was too intense for normal drought-resistant agriculture. Tribal consultants from some descendant communities suggest that Hovenweep was built in response to this drought as a place where religious leaders could conduct cermemony to call the rain.

Native consultants have pointed out two different functions that the towers at Cajon might serve in ceremony. One may be obvious, and one may be a little more surprising. The towers' first function is to improve the view. In the summer, warm, moist air from the sea drifts into the region. When this warm air reaches the mountains, the slope forces the moisture upward. High in the sky, it cools and condenses as clouds. Late summer thunderstorsm bring rain at a critical time in the life cycle of corn. Towers like the ones at Cajon may have offered people a clear line of sight to the clouds over the mountains so that they could pray for rain to nurture crops.

The towers may also be a calendar. Cajon might not look like the calendar on your wall, but the western building and the tower work together as a timekeeping system. Both buildings are completely lit on the spring and autumn equinoxes. On the winter solstice, the tower is completely covered in shadow, and on the summer solstice, the western building is completely covered. In between, the shadows grow and recede so that a trained timekeeper could tell the exact date by the shadows' length. Tribal consultants believe timekeeping tools like this one allowed the religious leaders at Hovenweep to pray for rain at just the right time of year.

What's in a Name?

Cajon was named after Cajon Mesa, the large mesa that all of Hovenweep sits on. Cajon Mesa is tilted downward toward the south, which is why Cajon sits lower in elevation than Hovenweep's other units.

Part of the Park

Cajon was part of the original land designated as Hovenweep National Monument in 1923 through Presidential Proclamation #1654.

 

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Other Places to Go

 

Hovenweep's Home Base

Square Tower Group