We left Albuquerque with a specific destination and time in mind. We had reservations to do something, but we still had one night before we could arrive. We headed north and a bit east and were going to stay somewhere around Farmington NM. I had heard of Farmington before but had no reason why. One thought was just a Walmart for overnight but Roxie found another option. A small campground in Aztec NM, east of Farmington. The Ruins Road RV park.
The park was relatively cheap. We took a walk around it and they said they had spots by the river. We didn’t opt for one but found out where they were on our walk. It appears at one time there were spots down by the Animas River and they are trying to bring the campground back. There were, as always, many ‘permanent’ residents and it was right next to a mobile home park, with the requisite barky dogs!
But the real find to this location was just down the road. The name of the RV park gives a hint. Ruins. Specifically the Aztec Ruins National Monument! We did not know it was there until we parked. I had never heard of it before. It was a very nice stop when we took off the next morning. We hooked up the trailer and parked it in their parking lot to tour the ruins. We didn’t have too far to travel today anyway.
The name Aztec Ruins is a bit deceiving. Aztecs were never this far north but the Spanish didn’t know that and called all Natives, Aztecs. The name stuck. This was one of the best ruins that we had seen. The ceremonial location, a Kiva, at this site was excavated and recreated. You can go inside it also:
Here are some of the multi-level structures, and you can walk through most of it:
Most doorways were pretty short though (the sign is not original):
One thing that I noticed that the Natives that constructed these buildings also built in rain gutters to channel the rainwater:
We spent a good amount of time there and enjoyed being touristy for a while. But we then got on the road again and got to the next state:
Time to add that state sticker to the door…
