East Ruins Tour

Today we walked down to the Aztec Ruins to go on a special tour of the East Ruins, that are not usually open to the public, as part of the Natuinal Park Service Centennial.  The group was limited to the first 15 people, so Brad and Bruce went down at 8:00 to get us signed up, even though the tour didn't start until 9:30.

It was pretty interesting.  The ruins that we toured our first day here are called the West Ruins.  They have been excavated quite a bit, while the East Ruins have had just a little excavating done.  There are also 2 more major Ruins sites at this location, we found out, as well as many smaller sites all around Aztec.  Most are covered by dirt and sand that has blown in or washed in from the river.

What we see here is actually the second story of these ruins.

Archaeologist Vern Hensler, on the left, was our guide.

This hole in the ground is the location of one of their kivas.

The wood beams you can see in the next two pictures are original... 800-900 years old.

Many of the doorway openings have gates across them now to keep larger critters (and humans!) out.

In the distance you can see the West Ruins.

Peek-a-boo!

After this tour, Brad wanted to attend one that toured the Heritage Garden, to learn about traditional foods and crops from the ancient Puebloan communities.  Roberta and I wanted to go shopping, so we took off.  The guys had their own fun golfing this afternoon.