Leslie and David's Wanderings: 15 March 2021 First 2021 National Monument

We visited our first National Monument for the year 2021 today. We drove the 20 miles to Aztec Ruins National Monument after lunch to allow time for things to warm up. The ruins in this NM are not Aztec, they are ruins from the Pueblo Indians which used this site from the late 1000s until late 1200s. The site was excavated by Earl Morris in 1916 which led to its protection as a national monument in 1923. The site was called Aztec Ruins based on old Spanish maps which tended to label all Indian ruins as Aztec. The visitor center was closed due to Covid restrictions, but we were able to do a self-tour of the site using an internet audio tour. We did get our NPS Stamp in our passport book, but really miss not being able to watch the park movie. We had tried to search for the movie on Youtube last night but could not find the official park movie. One of the great Kivas had been rebuilt in the 1930s by Earl Morris, and the CCC, based on his deductions from his excavations in 1916. The original building had been built with timbers brought in from over 100 miles away. It was an interesting tour through some of the rooms and the great Kiva. They believe that this site was an extension of the Chaco Canyon society. On the way back to the Behemoth, we ran into a park ranger and were able to ask a few questions about the site. The Ranger had started in 2019, during the park closure, so was not quite up to speed on the park information. But we did learn about a new national park program called Bark Ranger, where dogs can become NPS mascots! After walking the ruins, we wandered down another trail to the Animas River, which took us across a segment of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail and the remains of an ancient road from Chaco Canyon. This area is surrounded by three healthy rivers, the Animas, the San Juan and the La Plata. Its easy to see why this was a perfect place to build a Puebloan settlement.