We finally left our Colorado mountain retreat descending 2000 feet and 50 miles to Aztec, NM. Not much of a travel day, but we wanted to explore NW New Mexico a bit before moving on westward. One of the sight we wanted to take in was the Aztec Ruins, a 1000 year old native Indian settlement.
The settlement contained up to 400 separate rooms and some of the structures are 3 stories high.
One of several Kivas with in the ruins.
The restored Grand Kiva behind one of the unrestored structures.
Interior of the restored Grand Kiva.
Here you can see some of the decorative architecture of the outer wall.
The monument is very well taken care of and preserved. Not all of it has been excavated and much of it has been left just as it was found. As usual the National Park Service has done a great job.
We are here at the Ruins Road RV Park in Aztec NM. Aztec is a small town 30 or so miles south of the Colorado border in NW New Mexico. It's a nice little town with lots of interesting areas to explore so we decided to stay here for another week.
We'll be exploring ancient petroglyph sites, sandstone arches, interesting wilderness areas with a little off road exploration thrown in for fun. So stay tuned and we'll see you next time!!!
Can you imagine how much labor went into finding and lugging all those rocks to build that amazing place?
ReplyDeleteYes, and much of the wood used to support the roofs came from southern Colorado. Fascinating!!!
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