Salom and Aztec ruins.
We sat around until 10:AM waiting for the weather to clear before starting the days adventure.
Johnna wanted to visit the Salmon Ruins Museum in Farmington. We've passed the site several times in our travels, but never took the time to stop and see what was there.
The site consists of a Pueblo Ruin, Heritage Park, Pioneer Homestead, Museum and Research Library. We spent most of the time on a walking tour of the Heritage Park and Pueblo Ruin. In the Heritage Park, are reconstructed habitats depicting the various cultures that have occupied the San Juan region since the 11th century. Walking through the park gives you a fair understanding of the architecture and living conditions of the cultures that lived there over the last 10,00 years.
The Salmon Pueblo Ruin lies on the north bank of the San Juan River. The Pueblo seems to have been built in two distinct sections, an early east wing, built between A.D. 1068-1072, and the major construction from A.D. 1088 to 1090. The structure had three stories, 150 rooms on the ground floor, 67 on the second and an unknown number of rooms on the third. A main feature of the pueblo, was a central tower kiva and a great kiva in the plaza. An estimated 200 to 300 people lived there.
Evidence suggests that the pueblo was the largest Chacoan occupied site outside Chaco canyon. After the Chacoans abandoned the site, sometime after A.D. 1160, it was reoccupied until the late 13th century.
All of the pueblo ruins are interesting architecturally and give fascinating insights into the social structure and living conditions of people living there.
We wandered around the Salmon ruins until 1:30 or so before starting back to the RV park. The return trip took us through Aztec NM where, coincidentally, the Aztec Ruins National Monument is located. We've been there before, many years ago, so it seemed worth visiting again.
The ruins aren't really Aztec. Ancestral Pueblo people undertook an extensive building project along the Animas River in northwestern New Mexico sometime around 1100 A.D. It took them less than three decades to build Aztec West which stands three-stories high, is longer than a football field and could have had as many as 500 rooms. A ceremonial "great kiva", more than 40 feet in diameter, dominates the pueblo plaza.
Visitors follow a short trail winding through rooms joined with intriguing "T" shaped, north-facing doors. Many of the doors are aligned from room to room, affording a unique visual tunnel through blocks of rooms. The trail descends into the reconstructed great kiva. Interning this large keva invokes the same sense of wonder I have when walking into a western cathedral or church.
Just as we were about to leave the information area, a heavy hail storm moved through the area. Hail, from an eighth to one half inch in size, pelted the area for about 10 minutes.
