Acoma Pueblo 1

Acoma Pueblo

"AK coh Ma" 

Acoma Pueblo, a Native American village about 60 miles west of Albuquerque, claims to be the oldest continually occupied community in the United States.

Will, my oldest and a banker, arranged financing for an apartment complex there. He was unable to attend the ribbon cutting a few months ago, so we decided to ride down so he could see the project, Cedar Ridge Complex an apartment community, firsthand.

But first we must get there.

Green River, Utah is our first stop. In the morning before we leave Green River we ride up to see the Golden Ratio sculpture.

Then we take the Cisco exit off I-70 and ride over to the "Ghost town" of Cisco.....there are some live souls living in Cisco. But don't ask their names....Cisco-ites are there because they appreciate privacy!

Which doesn't mean they are not nice folk....we asked and received permission to go into a yard and take some pictures of this bus.

After Cisco we ride the beautiful SR128 and stop at the Dewey Bridge. Or at least what is left of it, some knucklehead burned it up a few years ago. So sad, the Dewey Bridge was an Historical artifact and now it is gone.

(click on pic to read)

Back on the 128 we get stopped for construction and see two Vanderhall cars. Very cool!

We exit 128 and get on the La Sal loop, at the top a very nice lady offers to take our picture.

Southbound on US191 we stop at Wilson's arch.

We spend the night in Farmington, New Mexico then leave in the morning to visit Chaco Canyon. This National Park preserves one of the most important pre-columbian cultural and historical areas in the U.S. We didn't realize we would be traversing about 40 miles of crappy dirt roads....20 to get there and about 20 more to exit the other side.

Oh well, it was interesting to see a community that was inhabited between 900 and 1150 AD and the remains of the largest buildings constructed in North America until the 19th century.

Stairs carved in the rock.

Then back on the dirt road again....

Parts of the road were quite rough, but we were able to steer our way safely back to pavement.

Back on a civilized road we made our way to Acoma Pueblo.....or not, we got lost (see part 2)

Acoma Pueblo 2

Soooo....we didn't exactly get lost, but we had entered the address in the GPS that we thought was where the Cedar Ridge Complex was located but no, it turns out that address was the Tribal Center office which oversees the complex. No big deal....a friendly local gave us good directions and we realize we were close.... only 86 miles away!

The scenery and roads were wonderful, so the extra miles were just a bonus on an already great day of riding.

Once we did arrive at Acoma Pueblo we finally found the Cedar Ridge Complex....or in the local vernacular; The Apartments.

Will is rightfully proud of his part in bringing this much needed complex to the reservation.

Good job Will!

You can see from the long shadows it was late in the day. We got a room for the night and prepared to visit Acoma Pueblo, Sky City and take the tour on the morrow.

And here (from afar) is Sky City, or Acoma Pueblo, on top of the Mesa, hence "Sky City".

A little closer.

 And we start on the tour by riding the bus up the VERY steep roads to Acoma Pueblo.

The Church, I think the tour guide said this was the 3rd oldest Church in North America.

(we were not allowed to take photos the inside of the church)

The wood logs used to make the beams in this Church were cut down 40 miles away, and human carried (the Catholic Priest in charge didn't allow use of animals) to Acoma Pueblo.

The tour guide was vague on how many people actually live in Acoma Pueblo permanently....he did say numerous members return and visit the city often, staying in their ancestral homes.

And several pix of the city

Looking across some homes to the Church again.

Will and Your's Truly.

At the end of the tour, we were given the choice of riding in the bus back down to the visitor center, or walking down on the same paths that the natives used all those years ago....we took the ancient paths...aka the hard way!

It WAS difficult going down, but I started thinking about how those ancient people hauled the long beams that were used in the Church and homes. It is amazing to think they carried them up these same paths.

After Sky City, we rode part of Route 66 on our way back to Utah.

The famous corner...

We then stopped at the Navajo Bridge.

And some more ruins along the way.

Almost home we stop for a refreshing drink and a short visit with Tow Mater.

1704 miles, this was a super ride and a GREAT way to spend some time with Will!

Life is good.