Aztec Ruin is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site called Chaco Culture. The other part is in Chaco Canyon, a bit to the south. Chaco Canyon is remote, and you have to drive a bumpy, bone-jarring dirt road to get to it. Rough, but well worth the trip! I was there two years ago.
Aztec Ruin is not at all remote. It is in the middle of a small town called Aztec, though there never were any Aztec people anywhere near this area. The early settlers named it Aztec, a mistake not uncommon in the southwest. There are lots of places with odd names because of assumptions. Anyway, Aztec Ruin is often very quiet. It was when Juli visited it on her 70 plus National Park and Monument motorcycle trek a few years ago. And it was when I was there two years ago. Great for contemplation about the people who once called this place home. So strange to have a town quietly surrounding this ancient ruin, like it was just another park. I think it is a little like an ancient ruin in Greece ... it is just there and people get used to it.
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I'm always moved when I see such places. I try to imagine people's life in those times, and to understand why they disappeared, thinking that maybe my own civilisation will maybe disappear too one of those days...
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