What to see in NM (Grants, San Juan: movies, live, agriculture)

[Solidwood]

The Colorado Plateau is an intermountain region roughly centered on the Four Corners region covering an area of 130,000 square miles within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southern and eastern Utah, and northern Arizona. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries; the Green, San Juan and Little Colorado.
In the southwest corner of the Plateau lies the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Locally called "Red Rock Country" most of the Colorado Plateau is related in geology and landscape appearance to the Grand Canyon. The brightly colored rock can be the feature and backgound in a picture of natural features like domes, hoodoos, fins, reefs, goblins, river narrows, natural bridges and slot canyons typical of the Plateau.
The greatest concentration of national parks in the United States include Grand Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Petrified Forest National Park. Among the national monuments are Dinosaur National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Colorado National Monument. Have some time and want to see the "west" at its best? Plan to see the grand features of the Colorado Plateau.

[Solidwood]

In northwest New Mexico the Colorado Plateau can be appreciated from the nearby community of Grants. Just a few miles jaunt any direction will open up the westerner's west as only may be seen in the movies. North of Grants lays Chaco Canyon once inhabited by ancient peoples, the Anasazi.

The canyon life between 400 and 700 A.D. is characterized by more permanent architecture, widespread use of ceramics and a greater degree of dependence on agriculture. Water drainage from the mesa tops could support an agricultural subsistence to a greater extent than ever before in this arid region. By 700 A.D., moisture and groundwater levels began a steady decline that lasted for several centuries, culminating in a 50-year drought that ended in 900 A.D.

By the early 900s conditions began to improve, and the Chaco Anasazi began expanding trading with trade routes, populations dispersed to find better lives. During the next few centuries, Chaco Canyon was the setting for one of the most complex societies and a place of the largest communities and pueblo buildings in North America.

[tecpatl]

Chaco is indeed a spectacular place, and well worth a long visit. A hike or drive to some of the less excavated outliers is also very much worthwhile.
When people ask me what to see when they visit New Mexico, on of the first Native American sites I recommend is Acoma Pueblo, the Sky City, up on the rocky mesa. A spectacular place, and still inhabited, though the population in winter dwindles to very small numbers. It is, pardon an extremely overused word, truely awesome.

[GregW]

Get a copy of the Benchmark Road Atlas, a copy of Off the Beated Path in NM, copy of Roadside Geology of NM, and at least one Ghost Town book. If you are flying into the State the first thing should be a trip up the Sandia Tram at sunset.