Visit to Aztec Ruins…

The day after visiting Salmon Ruins, I headed early in the morning just 2 miles from the RV park to the Aztec Ruins NM. Note that the two ruins are ~12 miles apart. Both border rivers. Aztec Ruins are due north of the Salmon Ruins.

I wanted to re-visit this NM (National Monument) because it’s just so damned interesting. And that’s mainly because of the rebuilt kiva. The largest in the SW as I understand it. Or perhaps the world. Note that the Spanish that wandered up into the SW from Mexico often named things Aztec but of course the people that populated this area were from the North, not the South.

Anyway, first, I wandered around the Ruins Road RV park and down by the river as it’s a fairly unique place too. Not *overbuilt* like many river adjoining RV parks. Close to the river, down a steep paved road from the upper large RV parking area is a smaller area that I generally see smaller RVs in. It’s rather charming really. If you have a small RV, it would be a very peaceful, quiet, interesting place to camp for a while. Not sure if it’s got power down there or not. I do know there’s a couple pit toilets slightly up the embankment, so no sewer down there I wager. Dunno about water. Still, nice place to stay in a smaller RV. Meanwhile, here’s a shot of the upper area where I was parked. The river is off in that direction.

And after driving through the main section of the park up on the top area, I drove down a fairly steep embankment to the lower section that borders the river.

It does look like there’s power down here. I see what appears to be a power station to the right of that RV. It’s a newer Class C type. Looks like a 24 footer. Only camper down here during this visit.

Much of this section of the RV park is for tent camping and they get a lot of campers certain times of the year…just not in mid-November.
This is the Animas River. Exactly why the Pueblo peoples built their town so near here.

Wide and deep enough to be a year long source of fresh water, probably good fishing back in 1080 CE, and this location was initially populated by some early settlers that preceded a larger group that arrived in 1100 CE. There are solid and level river banks, not much evidence of repeated large flooding (though some), many trees for building use and as fire wood, and fine planting grounds just up the embankment on the western shore or on the eastern shore as well.

After reminiscing for a while, and with the morning tour of the RV park over, I drove up to the NM. You can see from the size of the main building that it’s not getting the kind of crowds that would typically be underfoot so here’s where you should come if you just want a bit of ancient Indian history on one of your trips without having to battle hordes of tourists.

This is where I parked. Front row. No waiting. Course it was early in the morning still.

I had my Senior park pass around my neck so it was free for me to enter. The next picture is of the trail just outside the back door. The staff hands you a guide book as you enter. Each site is numbered and explained in the book. The ruins are right there not far outside the building…

This is the world famous giant kiva.

The modern stairway down into the kiva. This is the original entrance though. The colors were found when the site was first dug up back in 1921 by Earl Morris. Then in 1934 he directed it’s reconstruction. Although today’s archaeologists would howl at anyone rebuilding something like this now, I’m sure glad he did. It’s spectacular, and a crumbled, charred mostly buried ruin wouldn’t be half as interesting.

The holes in the walls with the embedded style ladders lead to small rooms. What they were used for is a mystery.

Here’s one shot of the inside of one of the rooms. No benches. I’m inside looking out the only entrance/exit towards the main room. The lack of any creature comforts kind of suggests the rooms were just used for storage or occasional meditation, or perhaps even jails while the elders discussed punishment.

The various rooms like this one’s use has been forgotten over the centuries. Maybe visitor rooms or wise men, or priests hovels. No one knows.

The holes in the floor of the main space could have been turned into large drums when wooden planks were placed over the empty spaces. As suggested by local American Indians. Or storage. Local tribes don’t know for sure, but they offered various ideas.

After leaving the kiva, walking along the interpretive trail…here’s another kiva. Fairly deep. These buildings show evidence of having had a wooden rafter and grass type roof over arching this kiva which would have had large round hole in the middle of the roof. And there would have been a ladder in that hole leading down inside. Smoke from the main fire would rise up through the hole. The evidence is that many roofs caught fire and sometimes the detritus would be left in place. Plus there were no escape routes for the kivas other then the roof hole. There’s one kiva (Chaco Canyon site maybe?) where bodies of almost a dozen children and a couple adults were found. And evidence of a fire.

After visiting this 2nd kiva, I proceeded along the trail to what used to be the living spaces in the buildings. I mentioned in the last article about Salmon Ruins how the rooms looked uncomfortable, this ruin they look more like living spaces. Better building design I think makes the difference.

Fairly interesting masonry going on here. It’s survived for 800 years so far, so…not bad. So here’s a photo of the rebuilt giant kiva in the background and that 2nd one we visited earlier in the foreground. The foreground one not as big or ornate (trying to imagine it with a slightly domed roof, and they say it was not much higher then those walls). Wonder what was going on here that they needed two similar buildings so close together? Plus all the other kivas built into the structure?

Several kivas at this site. Lots of meetings went on probably. Or people just liked the design and used them for living spaces, not just ceremonial. The round shape is suppose to evoke thoughts of the earth’s navel or represent it as where the ‘humans’ came from.

The ‘T’ shaped doorways are the subject of speculation as to their purpose with some just proposing that they allowed warriors with their weapons strapped to their backs to walk (or run) through unimpeded. It would have helped anyone carrying anything to get through easier too as the lower sections of the doorways weren’t very wide.

These ruins are some of the best preserved in the SW. Some of these rooms in the multi-story section still have their roofs. Later on in the tour, the dark rooms I passed through were used for storage, the rooms with more light, living spaces. There’s a multi-room section where the 2nd story is still in place as are the ceilings for the rooms. After 800 years.

Hard to tell what these spaces were actually for but as long as the artifacts aren’t too disturbed by pot hunters, it’s sometimes relatively easy, like the food preparation room in the above picture. And now, on the outside of the main wall, taking a short hike to an outlier kiva.

It’s suggested by Native Americans that these outlier kivas had ceremonial purpose where a wise man lived and gave advice to young warriors, or had his drug induced dreams, provided guidance to the tribe, or gained wisdom, and needed to be alone for that. There was a small hovel that was nearby that’s fallen to ruin now. A small shelter with a fire hearth and evidence of continuous habitation.

And on the way back to the main building I took some shots of the ruins and surrounding area. Which all suggest it was a pretty nice place to live back in 1100 CE. Of course being there in person is far better then these pictures. So peaceful now. Would have been a bustling metropolis back in the day.

And more shots of the ruins, then some pics while inside the small museum….

Than that last picture above is when I walked the trail from the ruins over to the river. Quite the hike of maybe 300 yards. The land to the right and left of the path was used for farming by the Puebloeans.

And that’s it for this time. Next time, there’s an adventure trying to reach the Chaco Canyon ancient Indian village complex, than on to Cuba, NM, than to Truth or Consequences. Be sure to join me for that. Pretty exciting. Well, maybe not *exciting* exciting but interesting for sure…I hope.

Thanks for reading!

Jim