Painted Hand Ruins

Tower at Painted Hand Pueblo

I recently took a trip out to Painted Hand, near Hovenweep.

The Painted Hand ruins are some of my favorites, mainly because of the way the tower is visible from the canyon rim.

It feels like you’re discovering it when you see it.

Painted Hand Tower, from the rim

 

Closer view of Painted Hand Tower

The trail down to the ruins is nice. Not too developed, but not too difficult either. You get really good views of the towers on the way down. There’s only one tower that is still standing, the other is just rubble.

Painted Hand Tower

 

Painted Hand Tower. The window is blocked by an inner wall.

It seems odd that the lower tower window is sealed off by the inner wall of the tower. I wonder if this was a retrofit, to make the tower more defensible?

Painted Hand Tower. The window is blocked by an inner wall.

Like a lot of ruins, this tower is built on a rock with a pronounced overhang.

Painted Hand Tower

That ruin under the tower’s base rock is where the ‘Painted Hand’ is.

Painted Hand Tower, with ruin beneath overhang.

There are a couple of small ruins under overhanging rocks and cliff walls that are next to the trail. The first ruin has a wall which follows the contour of the overhang.

One of the overhang ruins has a wall which follows the overhang’s rock contour closely

Under the tower rock’s overhang is another ruin. This one has the eponymous ‘Painted Hand’ pictograph on its back wall. The paint looks like it was sprayed on. Maybe by some one holding pigment in their mouth and spraying it out?

The ‘Painted Hand’ pictograph, in the ruin beneath the main tower

If you follow the trail further, past Painted Hand, it’ll follow the canyon down and eventually take you to Cutthroat Castle - another great set of ruins.