National Historical Parks - New Mexico

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

5/27/1997 Drove east over the divide again, then north to Chaco Culture NHP. The last 20 miles were over dirt road with washboard surface - not fun. Well worth it, though - the park preserves amazing pueblos from about 900-1000 A.D. The Pueblo Bonita reached, as the others, by a short hike, had 600-800 rooms and kivas, some 3 stories tall. The construction is incredible, with flat walls and sharp corners. The weather is once again perfect - cool and sunny. The pueblos are at the foot of the huge canyon walls. Really impressive.

The long bumpy road in

The park sign

Amazing construction

Barely any spaces!

Me in the ruins

A wide view of the ruins area

Pretty cactus flowers

Pecos National Historical Park

6/4/1995 From there to Pecos and Pecos National Historic Park. Here there were ruins of a 15th century pueblo and 16th-17th century Spanish mission. Climbed down into a kiva and walked around some more.

The park sign

Me emerging from a kiva

Ruins and what the structure looked like

More ruins

4/30/2017 For our last stop we continued south, getting off the Interstate on some back roads in Glorieta for the Glorieta Pass Battlefield NHL. This is the site of a Civil War battle that ended Confederate ambitions to cut off the West from the Union. While driving the last bit of road we noted two things: a) there was a gate across the road and a closing time before we were there and b) bonus for Ken, this was considered an area in the Pecos NHP! We parked, ignored the sign, ducked under the gate and walked a short way to a ravine where there was some interpretive signage. Not much more to do other than take a few photos, so we got back on the road down to Albuquerque.

The state sign ...

... and the park sign

Ken reading ...

... the interpretive ...

... signage

The battle area