JUNE 26 & 27, 2013  AZTEC NATIONAL MONUMENT & AZTEC ARCHES

We wanted to take in the Aztec ruins as they have been the best preserved of the many ruins in New Mexico.  These ruins were not made by the Aztec people of Mexico but by the Pueblo people who inhabited the area between 830 and 1130AD.  In fact, it the ruins that was responsible for the name of the town.  Early settlers thought the ruins were made by the Aztec’s and named the town after them.

 

We started our tour of the ruins with a short film on the Pueblo People and the ruins.  It gave us much greater perspective when we were walking the grounds.  The area is not that large as only a small portion of the village was excavated.

One of the more interesting aspects of the ruins was the recreated great Kiva.  The Kiva was the central and most important feature of the village.  It held ceremonial services’, it was the meeting place for the leaders as well as a community centre.  This structure and the rest of the village was quite a feat at the time.  The tools were very simple and the supplies (rocks and timber) were gathered and carried here from 20 – 50 miles away. 

The Pueblo people left this area around n the late 1200’s and nobody knows for sure why they left.  It could have been drought or religious or political issues.  Apparently they moved south into the better watered Rio Grande area and west into Arizona where their descendants live today. However, this site is not forgotten.  Many southwest tribes, descendants of the ancestral Pueblo people of Aztec, maintain cultural and spiritual ties to this site.

It was a nice visit.

 
AZTEC ARCHES

In the area surrounding Aztec there are 220 Sandstone Arches.  The Arches are located in small canyons within driving distance of the town.  We had time after visiting the ruins to try and find two of them.  The first and largest arch in the area is simply called Arch Rock. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second arch was in Cox Canyon and involved some hiking.  Not a good idea as it was 102 outside but we went anyways.  Idiots.  This arch is considered the most spectacular arch in the Aztec area mainly due to its 125 foot vertical rise.  

You Have to look really close, it is there

 We had some trouble finding the trail as there were no signs.  The directions read park at the base of the cliff and hike north.  At dead end, look for steps on the left.  Their definition and my definition of steps are not quite in tune. 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

We navigated the steps and carried on until we came to a part of the climb that proved to be just too much.  I got to the second level and was able to get a closer look at the arches but that was it. 

The path is where??????

You have to be kidding me.!!!!!!

I'm getting too old for this crap.

Do You where you are going?????



The End, in more ways than one!!!!

Last look at The Arch

We headed back down and took some time to take a few pictures of the different shapes and looks.

 

By now the heat was starting to get to us, nothing to do with the climbing, and decided to head back.  Tomorrow we tackle the badlands.

 

JUNE 23 – 25   Bloomfield, NM and Angel Peak

We are on the road to Bloomfield, NM which had us travelling some pretty nice terrain.  The first place we stopped to take pictures was at Abiquiu Lake.

 

You can’t see the boats in the pictures but the lake was busy.

Little did I know that this would be the last stop for the next 50 miles.  We had turned onto Hwy 96 which would eventually take us to Hwy 550.   Hwy 96 is a secondary road with no shoulders and had even started to erode in some places. 

 

The fortunate part is that the scenery is quite spectacular; at least judging by the pictures Kathy took out the window.   The unfortunate part is that I really couldn’t take my eyes off the road to enjoy it.

We reached Hwy 550 turned right and made the straight run into Bloomfield.  It was the relaxing part of the drive and I could enjoy the scenery. 

 

We arrived in Bloomfield and settled in for the night.  We are planning to stay for a week as they are quite a few things we want to do.  We start tomorrow.

 

One of the areas we were looking forward to exploring is the Bisti Badlands which is where we are headed today.  Unfortunately we got some bad information and tried to get to the area from the wrong highway. The bad news is that we spent a fair amount of time travelling the back country.  The good news is that we saw some pretty unique country side. 

 

 

 

 

 

We finally found a gentleman who was checking oil lines that was able to set up straight.  He explained that we were on Navajos land and that was why there were no signs.  Armed with the new info we decided for forgo the Badlands and detour over to another sight we wanted to see, Angel Peak.

There were two areas from which you could observe the peak.  The first was from an overlook that gave a view of a canyon and the peak in the distance.

 

 

Angels Peak

Once we left the overlook we turned off the main highway and started for the peak.  The first thing we noticed is that the GPS didn’t recognize most the back roads.  The second thing is that the roads were not that good.  Gravel, sometimes sand and not very wide. 

The area we were looking for (we thought) was the Angel Peak Conservation area.  We were led to believe that there was a campground and hiking trails at the base of the Peak.  Again we got bad info.  There was no campground, no hiking trails and we were nowhere near the Peak.  We were able to walk up a road that we couldn’t drive and this gave us a better view of the Peak and the surrounding area.  Pretty nice.

 

It was time to head back so we set the GPS and the fun began.  It was like playing a video game trying to keep the car on the purple line in the GPS.   It was even harder to control as Kathy kept yelling at me to stop and take a picture.  Of course I did what I was told.

 

 

The drive ended up taking a lot more time that it should have as the GPS tried to take us on roads that were not there.   It wouldn’t have been too bad as the view was phenomenal except that we were getting low on gas.  However, we finally got out of there and headed back to the RV Park.  It was definitely a different day but at the same time a pretty nice day.  We were fortunate to be able to enjoy some pretty awesome countryside.