Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Overnight rules here are set locally — check before you go
Camping rules for this unit come from its founding proclamation and management plan, which are not published in the data behind this page. Many monuments and conservation lands allow camping only in designated sites. Check the managing office's official page before planning to stay overnight.
Rules change with fire season and local order. Checked 2026-08-05. Confirm on the managing office’s official page
- Area
- 286 sq mi
- Managed by
- BLM
- Campgrounds
- None listed
- Longest rig
- Not published
Where the land is, and what fits
The official BLM boundary with every campground we hold inside it. Tell it how long your rig is and the map keeps only what takes it — public land rarely matches the shape people picture, and neither does what you can actually get into.
Official unit boundary · Bureau of Land Management
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Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado contains a wealth of archaeological sites--more than 6,000 recorded so far--representing Ancestral Puebloan and other Native American cultures.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a national monument protecting an archaeologically significant landscape located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado. The monument's 176,056 acres (712.47 km2) are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, as directed in the presidential proclamation which created the site on June 9, 2000. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is part of the National Landscape Conservation System, better known as the National Conservation Lands. This system comprises 32,000,000 acres (130,000 km2) managed by the Bureau of Land Management to conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes recognized for their outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values. Canyons of the Ancients encompasses and surrounds three of the four separate sections of Hovenweep National Monument, which is administered by the National Park Service. The monument was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States, primarily Ancestral Puebloan ruins. As of 2022, over 8,500 individual archeological sites had been documented within the monument.
Extract from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Byways through this country
Places worth pulling over
National parks close enough to pair
Drive to Canyons of the Ancients the long way
Byway plans the road in, not just the destination — real places along the way, weighted to what you like, with nothing invented.