Chaco Cuture National Historical Park (181)

The primary reason for visiting the Farmington area was to explore the Native American ruins at Chaco Culture National Historical Monument, which is south of Farmington. Getting to the monument requires traveling over a long stretch of graded road (about 16 miles) that has some of the very worst washboard effects that I've ever encountered, but the monument was worth the jarring. Luckily the monument wasn't very heavily visited, so it was easy to spend time pondering the level of development and culture that had resulted in such elaborate and sophisticated structures being built in the area 1000 years ago. Since the daytime temperatures were hovering close to 100 and there is no shade, I didn't get to explore as much of the monument as I would have liked.

Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.