Images of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, CO

Canyon of the Ancients is very remote and frankly there just isn't much there, relative to Mesa Verde, where much of the archaeological material left by the Puebloan people are found in small, easily visited areas. Still, it was quite a drive to get out there and see the countryside and the Puebloan ruins. The landscape is amazing -- sagebrush fields, lots of farms, rolling hills, and gorgeous colors.

Welcome to this vast area full of archaeological treasures of the ancient Puebloan people.



There were loads of vultures flying above.



We spotted this Bald Eagle a long ways off in the distance. If you would like you can click on the pic and see the large version of it in which you can see that the eagle is looking right at you. There are a few other pics of this guy on my Flickr page, if you want to check them out.



The ruins of a massive Kiva.



The ruins of a Puebloan town.



Of course I didn't touch or disturb anything, but the neat thing about Canyon of the Ancients is that it is so remote, that literally there was no one else around and we were free to wander about the ruins in a way that you could never do at Mesa Verde, where you are typically going on tours led by Rangers. Canyon of the Ancients is a MASSIVE area and we only checked out one small area containing a large area of ruins.



The original Route 666 was recently renamed Route 491. How lame.