Aztec - What's In A Name?

I say goodbye to Abiquiu – I am totally in love with this place. I think in all of my travels so far, this is the longest I've ever stayed anyplace. I really hope to be back someday.

I am heading north, about as close to the Colorado border as you can get. I am on my way to another Junior Ranger badge at the Aztec Ruins. I stayed at the Ruins Road RV Park – the park itself is basically a big field with all the RVs lined up side by side. I lucked out and got a spot (11B) that was on the end so that I had nobody on one side of me. I also lucked out because this park had full hookups and was only $20 a night. The park was right on the Animas River and we could walk down along the river. The river was almost to the edge of the banks and running extremely fast. I watched a goose family take their little ones to the water edge and I was afraid the little ones would be swept away. Those plucky little guys jumped in and stayed right by the rest of the family. They must have been paddling like mad to stay in place.

Following the path along the river I came to an old rickety bridge that I had to go under.  I was surprised to see that somebody had been painting there.

Aztec Ruins – I was thinking this would be just another ancient ruin but it turns out that there has been some restoration done on the buildings. There was a little bit of controversy about whether or not these ruins should have been restored but as a latter-day tourist, it was much easier to imagine how these Ancients lived day to day. It brought it more to life, if you will.

Fun Fact:  Although they are called Aztec Ruins, the people who lived and worked here were not Aztec. The Spaniards called all native peoples Aztec and in this case, the name stuck.

This is one of the restored areas.  It is the underground Kiva where the Ancients held their ceremonies.  I don't think they had LED lighting on the stairs back in the day.  Actually, maybe they didn't even have stairs now that I think about it.  Notice the ladders all around the room.

And now we have my attempt at being artistic.  In the ruins, one room led to another

The Ruins

For my Junior Ranger Badge I had to draw a picture of different restoration methods.  I chose to take a picture of a ranger restoring a wall.  It worked and I got my badge