Friday we headed down the road toward Durango, CO. Beautiful scenery of course. At Durango we turned south and headed into New Mexico. A new State for us!
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| The beautiful Animas River |
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| Good pizza here!.....and beer too! |
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| The biggest RV site we have ever had. |
Thirty miles into New Mexico we came to the town of Aztec. We're here for two nights at the Ruins RV Park. Odd name but it's located just three blocks from the Aztec Ruins National Monument.
'Aztec' is really not accurate. Spaniard explorers mistakenly named the ruins found here as 'Aztec' in origin. The name stuck however so today the ruins and the town are still known by that name.
Friday we explored downtown and had a nice lunch at 550 Brewing Company. They serve great pizza and ice cold beer.
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| The pizza was excellent! |
Saturday we headed over to the Aztec Ruins. Another very well done display with artifacts. The ruins were uncovered and partially restored in the 1930's.
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| These are the West ruins. There is a whole other set of ruins east of here. They are covered currently, awaiting possible restoration in the future. |
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| The great Kiva. One of the largest ever found. |
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| Inside the Kiva. |
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| The huge pillars support a roof estimated at 95 tons of wood. The circular discs shown here are the base for the pillars |
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| The pillars are built with alternating wood and stone. |
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| A smaller Kiva. Kivas were used for ceremonial reasons. |
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| Series of doors that take you to various chambers. Some for living, others for storage. |
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| Smaller kivas are older than the larger ones. The population grew so modifications to the facility had to be made. |
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| There is a mat of willows sewn with Yucca. It is original and was used as a covering for a doorway. |
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| Grinding tools for corn. |
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| This north wall aligns with the spring and fall solstice. |
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| This unusual Kiva had three layers of wall. Archaeologists do not know why. Very rare to see this. |
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| The west wall has layers of green stone within the wall. No clear reason for this either. Sure is pretty though. |
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| Huge Cottonwoods on the site. |
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| View of the great Kiva. |
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| A huge complex. Built over the course of thirty years around 1250 AD. Impressive! |
Sunday we leave here and head toward Albuquerque.
....and that was Our View From Here!
sure looks like a wonderful area.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new state! The pizza looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteWe really loved seeing these ruins a few years ago. Didn't know that there was a Brewing Company in town, maybe it's new. Last time we were there our power steering went on our car and had to be towed away to be fixed. We had been going down gas line back roads to find arches on their "scavenger hunt".
ReplyDeleteSome great sights you guys have seen, thanks for sharing. I'm sure you will enjoy Albuquerque but if you have time make a visit to Santa Fe as well.
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