Farmington, NM - The Aztec Ruins NM

I’m thinking that all you in Iowa are not having chili and cornbread today. It’s a bit cool today with rain which adds a bit of a dampness. I thought chili sounded just right. The temps here are seasonably cool and will struggle to get up to 50 on Thursday and Friday. Rain is expected here but in the higher elevations around Santa Fe and Taos, snow is expected. I’ve checked the Iowa temps and they will be about 30 degrees higher. I’m not expecting any sympathy and know I wouldn’t get any anyway. But, I’m happy that you Iowans will get some warmth this week.

Unfortunately, the big balloon fest is in Albuquerque this weekend, the weekend they’re predicting strong winds.

We had only 73 miles to drive today to get to the next campground in Farmington, NM but wanted to also visit a museum in the next town. This meant that we arose at 6:00 and bustled around to get ready to move on down the road. We also wanted to travel before the rain. Oops, not a chance, it had begun raining while we were asleep. We hitched up in a light rain, drove out of town in a steady rain and arrived in a lighter rain. And, don’t even ask me how dirty our Jeep is. But, hey, aren’t Jeeps supposed to be dirty?

Luckily we drove most of the way on a curvy hilly road behind a guy who saw no need to drive over 40 miles per hour. This was fine with us with the rain, the curves, the hills and the condition of the road. There were lots of little rolling ups and downs on the road. Sometimes, our 30,000 lbs would hit several of these in a row and do what is called porpoising. 40 miles per hour was just fine.

We arrived in the rain, unhitched in the rain and set up in the rain. We thought it a fine day to visit a museum, the Aztec Ruins National Monument in the next town, Aztec. These were named Aztec because the white settlers saw these and thought them Mexican.

It was another Ancestral Puebloan community but what separates it from the others is the marvelous kiva excavated and rebuilt by archeologist Earl Morris in 1934. It shows what a kiva looked like when the original inhabitants built and used it. We have seen many kivas in our travels but none which show a kiva as it originally was designed. The original builders put plaster on the walls and painted them. Since these two have weathered, we see only the stone foundation now. But here it is in all its glory.

Note the ceiling construction with the criss cross of varrying sizes of wooden beams. There is no wood like this in this region. The only forests which would have had trees this large for these beams are several humdred miles away. These people cut the logs, let them dry out and then carried them to this site.

The Ancestral Puebloans usually entered the kiva through a hole in the roof and climbed down a ladder. Aztec Ruins actually has an original ladder.

Afterwards, we headed home for the chili and cornbread.