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The Trail of the Ancients is a New Mexico Scenic Byway to prehistoric archaeological and geological sites of northwestern New Mexico. It provides insight into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans and the Navajo, Ute, and Apache peoples. Geological features include canyons, volcanic rock features, and sandstone buttes. Several of the sites are scenic and wilderness areas with recreational opportunities.
The Trail of the Ancients captures the archaeological evidence of hunter and gatherers who lived in the area since 10,000 B.C. or earlier, [1] in the northwestern portion of the state. [2] [3] The Ancient Puebloans that lived in the area between about 850 and 1250 A.D. [4] are the ancestors of the modern Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande Pueblo tribes. Navajos, from the Athabascan tribal areas in northwestern Canada, migrated into the area about 500 years ago. [5] Other Native Americans include the Utes and Apaches. [6]
Native peoples left evidence of their lives in ruins of agricultural communities, broken pieces of pottery, tools, pictographs, and petroglyphs. The landscape includes large sandstone formations, desolate deserts, interesting views, and geologic formations. [1]
A key site on the byway are the ruins at Chaco Canyon, which was the "ceremonial center" for puebloan people at that and outlying pueblos between 850 and 1250 A.D. Other key sites are the El Morro National Monument and El Malpais National Monument. [4]
A great portion of the land in northwestern New Mexico belongs to the Navajo Nation. [5] The route traverses multiple roads, including U.S. Route 64, U.S. Route 550, NM 57, NM 122 and other state, county and Navajo Nation roads. [7]
Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was inhabited in the canyon between 850 and 1250 A.D., is the center and starting point for the byway. It is located in a remote location on a rugged road. To reach the Chaco Culture site, follow National Park Service signs from U.S. Route 550, turning first onto County Road 7900. [8] There are a visitor center, six monumental sites, and a trail to other sites. [7]
On NM 57 [9] drive south of the park to NM 371 and drive south to Crownpoint, known for its monthly auction of Navajo rugs. [7]
Continue south on NM 371 to Navajo Road 48. Turn right on McKinley County Road 19 and continue on the road to the Casamero Pueblo, which was an outlier of the Chacoan site between about A.D. 1000 and 1125. [7] [10]
Travel south on McKinley County Road 19 to NM 122, turn left and travel the road to Grants, where there is the New Mexico Mining Museum. Continue on NM 122 to NM 117 and drive south to the El Malpais National Monument, made about 3,000 years ago by lava flows. [7] [11]
Return to Grants and from NM 122, take NM 53 south to the Ice Cave and Zuni-Bandera volcanic field, where there is the "Chain of Craters" of cinder cones. [7] [11]
Drive west on NM 53 to El Morro National Monument, a large butte that appears "like a huge ocean liner" on the horizon. [7]
Continuing west on NM 53, the Zuni Pueblo with six original sites was the goal of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in his search for the "Seven Cities of Gold." [7]
Gallup is located north on NM 602, where there is a mural to the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, Indian crafts for sale, a Visitor's Center, the Rex Mining Museum, and the historic El Rancho Hotel & Motel. [7]
Two Grey Hills and Toadlena are two trading posts located north of Gallup in Newcomb on U.S. Route 491. There are about 1,500 Navajo people living near the trading posts, some of whom who sell their woven rugs at the trading posts. [7] [12]
Farmington, where two thirds of the surface water in New Mexico flows through area rivers, is north on U.S. Route 64. Recreational trails and the Farmington Museum are key sites. [7]
Two pueblo ruins at the Aztec Ruins National Monument, an outlier of the Chacoan Canyon site, are near Bloomfield, [7] which is east of Farmington off of U.S. 64. [13]
South of Bloomfield off of NM 371, in the badlands of New Mexico, are the Bisti Wilderness Area, De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area, and Angel Peak Scenic Areas. [7] [14]
Beklabito (also spelled Beclabito), a Navajo community, is located west on U.S. 64. The scenery includes Navajo hogans, red sandstone formations and yellow and gray-striped hills. [7]
The Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway was made one of the New Mexico Scenic Byways after July 31, 1998 [15] and by 2013. [16] It was designated a National Scenic Byway by the Federal Highway Administration on January 19, 2021.
Aztec is a city in, and the county seat of, San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. The city population was 6,126 as of the 2022 census. The Aztec Ruins National Monument is located on the north side of the city.
Bloomfield is a city in northeastern San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Farmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,112 at the 2010 census.
Farmington is a city in San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census the city had a population of 46,624 people. Farmington makes up one of the four metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in New Mexico.
The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomous Native American nations, the largest of which is the Navajo Nation, followed by Hopi, Ute, and Zuni tribal reserves and nations. The Four Corners region is part of a larger region known as the Colorado Plateau and is mostly rural, rugged, and arid.
The Aztec Ruins National Monument in northwestern New Mexico, USA, consists of preserved structures constructed by the Pueblo Indians. The national monument lies on the western bank of the Animas River in Aztec, New Mexico, about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Farmington. Additional Puebloan structures can be found in Salmon Ruins and Heritage Park, about 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south. Archaeological evidence puts the construction of the ruins in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Puebloan-built ruins were dubbed the "Aztec Ruins" by 19th century American settlers who misattributed their construction to the Aztecs.
U.S. Route 550 (US 550) is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the western United States. The section from Silverton to Ouray is frequently called the Million Dollar Highway. It is one of the roads on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash. Containing the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico, the park preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States.
El Morro National Monument is a U.S. national monument in Cibola County, New Mexico, United States. Located on an ancient east–west trail in the western part of the state, the monument preserves the remains of a large prehistoric pueblo atop a great sandstone promontory with a pool of water at its base, which subsequently became a landmark where over the centuries explorers and travelers have left personal inscriptions that survive today.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a national monument protecting an archaeologically significant landscape located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado. The monument's 176,056 acres (71,247 ha) are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, as directed in the presidential proclamation which created the site on June 9, 2000. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is part of the National Landscape Conservation System, better known as the National Conservation Lands. This system comprises 32 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management to conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes recognized for their outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values. Canyons of the Ancients encompasses and surrounds three of the four separate sections of Hovenweep National Monument, which is administered by the National Park Service. The monument was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States, primarily Ancestral Puebloan ruins. As of 2022, over 8,500 individual archeological sites had been documented within the monument.
Casa Malpaís is an archaeological site of the Ancestral Puebloans located near the town of Springerville, Arizona. The site is a nationally recognized archaeological site and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
New Mexico State Road 4 (NM 4) is a 67.946-mile-long (109.348 km) state highway in Sandoval, Los Alamos, and Santa Fe counties in New Mexico, United States. It is significant as the main access route connecting the remote town of Los Alamos, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Bandelier National Monument to other, more major highways in New Mexico.
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a 45,000-acre (18,000 ha) wilderness area located in San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Established in 1984, the Wilderness is a desolate area of steeply eroded badlands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, except three parcels of private Navajo land within its boundaries. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed March 12, 2019, expanded the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness by approximately 2,250 acres.
The Trail of the Ancients is a collection of National Scenic Byways located in the U.S. Four Corners states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. These byways comprise:
Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area is a federally designated National Heritage Area in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The national heritage area includes a section of the upper Rio Grande Valley that has been inhabited by the Puebloan peoples since the early Pre-Columbian era.
State Road 117 (NM 117) is a 62.06-mile-long (99.88 km) state road in north west New Mexico, entirely within Cibola County. The southern terminus is at NM 36 near Quemado, and the northern terminus is at NM 122 and Historic U.S. Route 66 in Grants. NM 117 runs through the El Malpais National Conservation Area.
The Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway is a New Mexico Scenic Byway and National Forest Scenic Byway located in Northern New Mexico. It begins and ends in Taos, New Mexico.
Casamero Pueblo is an archaeological site including the partially excavated and stabilized ruins of an 11th-century Ancestral Puebloan community in Prewitt, New Mexico in McKinley County. It was an outlier of Chaco Canyon. It is on the Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway.