RVers eager to explore an abandoned Anasazi Indian village in a low-key atmosphere might want to visit Blanding in the Utah portion of the Four Corners region. Right at the edge of town sits an ancient village you can wander through without the restrictions and fees associated with Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Culture National Historic Park and other well-known Anasazi sites administered by the National Park Service.

These Westwater ruins probably had a ceremonial function.

Called Westwater Ruins, the Blanding village is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. It’s the largest easily accessible BLM archeological site in the Four Corners region and, like most BLM areas, is wide open to the public. No attendant holds out a hand to collect an entrance fee. No ranger patrols the area to enforce regulations. No signs declare this or that area off-limits. Federal law does prohibit damaging or removing artifacts, but otherwise you're free to explore at will.

Westwater was a typical Anasazi village with such structures as stone kivas, kilns and granaries built on ledges and in cliff-side alcoves. The residents, ancestors of modern Pueblo Indians now living in Arizona and New Mexico, farmed corn, beans and squash. They also made pottery, baskets, implements and ornaments. Although no one knows for sure why the Anasazi abandoned Westwater and their other Four Corners villages about 1300 A.D., most archeologists believe that a prolonged drought forced them to seek a more fertile homeland.

My wife and I had never heard of Westwater when we pulled into the Blue Mountain RV Park in Blanding on a recent trip. While walking our dog, we chatted with another RVing couple and mentioned that we had just been to northeastern Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly National Monument, which had disappointed us with its crowds and requirements for hired guides. The couple, from upstate New York, had discovered Westwater the previous day in their rental motorhome and gave us directions.

Even after more than 700 years, this structure is remarkably intact.

The ruins were plainly visible from County Road 232, a couple of miles off the main highway, U.S. 191. We parked our pickup, walked down a path into a gully and spent the next four hours exploring about a dozen ruins strung along the surrounding cliffs. On the roof of one kiva we could pick out a couple of faded hand-print pictographs. Here and there petroglyphs showed on rocks. Around a corner I came upon several well-worn circular depressions in a boulder where residents apparently had ground food.

Unfortunately, we also noticed modern graffiti and empty beer cans in some places--an inevitable consequence of the village’s proximity to town and lack of security. One Kilroy artist had signed his name and the date Aug. 19, 1930.

Today, though, my wife and I had the place all to ourselves, except for a few scurrying chipmunks and an occasional hawk or owl that flapped off from our approach. As an undeveloped site, Westwater offered no established trails or hand rails; reaching some ruins required a bit of route finding, including bushwhacking and rock scrambling.

 

What did these petroglyphs signify?

Of course, souvenir hunters had long ago whisked away any prized artifacts the Anasazi left behind, but we found some humble ones: tiny corn cobs in a granary and many potsherds with various designs on the slopes below the ruins. Resting on a rock during a snack break, I could imagine residents hauling water-filled urns from the stream that ran through the gully.

The Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding displays hundreds of Anasazi artifacts gathered from the Four Corners region and, in the absence of a visitor's center at Westwater, is an educational first stop for an overview of Anasazi culture. Blanding is also a strategic base for day trips to Monument Valley, Hovenweep National Monument and a host of other nearby attractions. We made a day trip to Natural Bridges National Monument the day after exploring Westwater. With a population of about 3,100, Blanding offers the same range of facilities as any town of that size. As for climate, the community, at an elevation of just over 6,000 feet, is fairly dry, chilly in winter and hot in summer.

An ancient granary is tucked into a niche.

The Westwater Ruins are easy to find. About a mile south of town, turn west onto Ruin Road and then follow County Road 232.