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 here I stopped on the slope leading into the upper area of Arches to take a shot of the entrance below.
