My sister and I decided to take a cultural trip to New Mexico. As you know if you’ve followed my blog, we are lovers of petroglyphs, pictographs, and dwellings/items left behind. We knew New Mexico had a lot of good ones, so I planned a domestic trip when our international got canceled (thanks, COVID 😦 ). But that sadness aside, this was a trip we’ve been wanting to take, so I was happy to get the opportunity to go.

Aztec Ruins National Monument – Check ahead for any park alerts
Address: 725 Ruins Rd, Aztec, NM 87410
Fees: Fee free park
NPS Website

We left Green River, Utah early and headed through to Aztec Ruins NM. Of course this isn’t actual Aztec Ruins, but if you read up on it, you’ll see that it was mistaken for them. The name stuck. It’s actually ruins from the Pueblos from about a thousand years ago. They were very skilled in their craft, and could build one hell of a structure.

We parked and first went up to the visitor’s center to get a pamphlet from the table they had set up. This is one of the locations that the visitor center was closed due to COVID, but the trails were open.

It’s a very short trail here to the main event. You can head right to have a picnic, or head left to see the ruins.

You’re able to go inside some of it here. During COVID times, we found that they had made this one way. One of the exit/entrances was strictly an entrance and the other an exit. This was also the case with the reconstructed Kiva, so be sure to keep your eye open for that. I’m not sure if this was strictly a COVID related thing or if it’s always like this. It was nice not having to run into anyone in that sense, so I’m not complaining.

I could see more ruins out further, but there was no pathway to get to them, which meant we didn’t go see them. But as you can see, there were a lot that we did get trails to, and that was enough for me!

The reconstructed Kiva was pretty cool, to get an idea of what a big Kiva looked like in all of its glory. We didn’t even know this was something we’d get to see here, so that was a nice surprise.

You might only spend an hour here, it’s not a lot of ground to cover, but a really cool place to stop in.

This was my first taste of these type of ruins and I was super impressed! Have you ever been to Aztec Ruins National Monument, or anywhere similar?