Category Archive: Native American sites

Anasazi Heritage Center and Stanton Englehart Exhibit

Before leaving Colorado I visited the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores. The small museum there is excellent, not just displaying artifacts but containing multiple interactive exhibits for both children and adults that really… Continue reading

Mesa Verde National Park, Part 2: Canyon Rim Dwellings and Spruce Tree House

There are over 600 archaeological sites within the park limits and though only a fraction of them are open to the public, I will not recount each of the dozen or so others… Continue reading

Mesa Verde National Park, Part 1: Cliff Palace and Balcony House

Mesa Verde is best known for its cliff dwellings. In fact, these dwellings are what people generally conjure up when discussing the Ancestral Puebloan culture (or the Anasazi as many people still refer… Continue reading

Aztec Ruins, New Mexico

From Chaco Canyon I drove back north to Aztec Ruins, a large great house site that contains a reconstructed kiva where visitors are permitted to sit inside. This site flourished concurrently with Chaco… Continue reading

Chaco Canyon, Part 3: Casa Rinconada, The Autumnal Equinox, and Petroglyphs

The great kiva at Casa Rinconada is the largest in the canyon at 63 feet in diameter and is unusual in that it is not incorporated in any great houses, has a 39… Continue reading

Chaco Canyon, Part 2: Pueblo Alto Trail, the Famous Pueblo Bonito, and a Moonlight Tour

Chaco Canyon, in addition to being the home of some amazing ruins, also happens to be a fantastically beautiful place. The Ancestral Puebloan people believed that this was their “center place,” a sacred… Continue reading

Chaco Canyon, Part 1: Una Vida, Hungo Pavi, Chetro Ketl, Kin Kletso, and Pueblo de Arroyo

Chaco Canyon was the heart of the ancient Puebloan culture, the epicenter of religious, social, and economic life in the region between the late 800s to early 1100s AD. More than a dozen… Continue reading

Salmon Ruins, New Mexico

From Chimney Rock I drove to the Salmon Ruins, which lies along the San Juan River near Farmington, New Mexico. The first phase of construction here in 1068 – 1072 AD was limited… Continue reading

Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado

Welcome to Archaeology Week! After visiting the Great Sand Dunes, I headed towards something marked in my atlas as “Chimney Rock Archaeological Area,” which is as of this year officially a national monument.… Continue reading

Sego Canyon: Petroglyphs and Pictographs

Driving on I-70 from Moab, we decided to stop at Thompson Springs, Utah to check out the petroglyphs of Sego Canyon. Located within 5 miles of the highway, the canyon has examples of… Continue reading