No Trespassing!!

One of the most frustrating parts about our adventures here in New Mexico has been the vast amount of private and reservation land that blocks our way to where we want to go. Stan enjoys looking at the maps and figuring out where we can find neat stuff to see and I enjoy going with him to see the neat stuff, it works great! We have lots of land use maps from the bureau of land management and so we make sure not to go where we shouldn't.

Well the first week in September, there were these ruins that we really wanted to go check out. We got in the car with all of our stuff and headed out. We were pretty disappointed when every road led to a locked gate with signs that said "No Trespassing!". We looked at the map for quite a while trying to see if there were anyway around it but it would have meant a 12+ mile hike and cliffs...bad combination for a hike starting at noon.

On our drive we did enjoy seeing an old ghost town, New Mexico has quite a few of those...

Of course there were some other Indian ruins that we were able to find. They were pretty neat. Their ability to build these stone houses into such perfect shapes is so impressive. Still amazes me where these people chose to live. I wonder how they kept their little ones from falling off the mesas...

And of course we drove through some arroyos...

The area had a great western feel for it. We could just imagine a wagon pulled by horses on this road:

We headed on some untraveled roads to find one more ruin that evening. It was another neat one with cool pottery all around.

After taking the above picture, Stan turned around to see this guy hiding beneath the stone right by him...can you see the snake? There have been way too many close calls for my comfort with those rattling friends.