The Last of New Mexico (07-23-17)

Well, although I said we were ready to move further north to escape some of the heat, we didn’t go that far, and we certainly didn’t go far enough.

We stopped in Farmington, NM for a few days. Like the name suggests, this is farm country.  Navajo farm country to be exact.  There are quite a few Indian Reservations in this area and Navajo Nation is the biggest.

Our goal is to combine some hiking with exploring more of the National Monuments dedicated to early Native American life. There is lots of history in this area and it can be a little overwhelming.


Our first full day here, we weren’t in the mood for a long drive, so we drove out to Bisti Badlands to do some hiking.

The badlands are comprised of very strange rock formations, and hill after hill to hike over and around.

There is no specific trail, and with temps yet again in the 90s, we made sure to bring a lot of water.  I also downloaded the map, with someone else’s tracks,onto my phone, and brought my portable battery charger, to be sure my GPS didn’t run out of juice. No way was I gonna get lost in the desert!

We had a hard time following the tracks, but we still managed to see some neat stuff-












Including a fair amount of petrified wood.
After almost 5 miles of hiking, we made it back to the parking lot.









The following day we were up for more adventure. Chaco Canyon  was quite a hub of early American life, in its day.  It is also about 70 miles from where we are staying so we got up quite early to head in that direction.

Thousands of Ancestral Chacoans lived here from about 850 AD until about 1250. In 1980 it moved from being a National Monument to the Chaco Culture National Historic Park.

There are quite a few complexes still available to walk through and explore.




We weren’t all that impressed with the information available, although we really were focused on hiking anyway.



One of the things we did learn about was the progression of their building ability.  When they first started building, they used flat stones of varying sizes.

















By the time they left, they had learned to make bricks and the buildings had a totally different look.











Anyway, on to the hiking trail.  Although it was, once again, in the mid 90s, we chose one of the longest trails- about 5.5 miles.

The trail started off by taking us up a steep slot canyon, until we reached a plateau.













Once atop the ridge, we had great views of the surrounding area and the buildings down in the canyon.








There were also several structures on top of the ridge, and remnants of ancient roads that led to other settlements in the area.




One of the interesting features on this trail is the ancient staircase, built in about the year 1000. You can see the steps, carved into the stone.















Although we didn’t see any hikers on the long loop portion of this trail, we certainly weren’t alone!

I really enjoyed this trail- a lot of the trail was on slick rock, which I really like.

We were done a lot earlier than we thought we would be, and left the canyon by mid afternoon.

I was ambivalent about our plans for our final day in Farmington.  Paul wanted to check out nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument.  I was feeling a little done with ruins.  But, as we like to say “ hey, we’re here.”  So we figured we might as well take a look.

I learned two pieces of interesting information right off the bat.  1st, I thought it was strange that this place is called Aztec Ruins. Turns out, the Spaniards lazily and erroneously named it that, and the name stuck.

Current day Puebloans do not consider this place “ruins” nor abandoned.  They feel that it is inhabited by their ancestors and should be treated with utmost respect.

We were given a binder for our self guided tour, so we could read about the points of interest as we stood in front of them. 

The Kiva, which is a large building used for ceremonial purposes, has been restored.

The roof of the Kiva weighs 95 tons. Materials, such as the wood for the roof, were brought from as far as 80 miles away. It was a very intelligent and organized workforce that built this small “city”.

Several of the “houses” have also been restored, which gave us a better glimpse into what their homes might have looked like.

I was so glad we made the effort.  This is a small National Monument, space wise, but I was really impressed with the whole set up. I mentioned that to the ranger, and he agreed that they did a great job of making the information “digestible”.