Navajo National Monument in northern Arizona was created in 1909 to protect the sites of three ancient Puebloan ruins. Its name is derived from its location within the Navajo Nation rather than the people who lived there and abandoned these settlements several centuries ago. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park […]
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Category: Ruins
Salinas Pueblo Missions
New Mexico is full of history from many eras. The three ruins sites preserved by Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument offer the visitor a glimpse into the meeting of the Puebloan and Spanish cultures that dates to the 1600s. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Visit. I […]
Pecos
Pecos National Historical Park sits just a couple of miles from the busy I-25 corridor near Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, but it feels like a world apart. Surrounded by juniper forests and mountains, Pecos NHP is a beautiful place, but it’s not its beauty that makes it part of the National Park system. First declared […]
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado, was established in 2012 on San Juan National Forest land surrounded by the Ute Reservation. Its twin rock spires high on a ridge inspired the name, but the monument protects several sites of ancient Puebloan ruins built by the Chaco people. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating […]
Aztec Ruins
Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico protects the site of a large Puebloan ruin. Established in 1923, this site is one of many that protect sites of the Chaco Culture, but it is certainly one of the most accessible sites of its kind. Despite the name given to it by American settlers, this site had […]
Ocmulgee Mounds
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park (formerly Ocmulgee National Monument) in central Georgia was established in 1936 to protect the site of several large mounds built by the Mississippian people around 1000 years ago. The site is home to eight mounds of various shapes and sizes as well as a Civil War Battlefield, the battle of […]
Tonto
Tonto National Monument, in the Superstition Mountains of central Arizona, protects a series of ancient ruins of cliff-dwelling natives known as the Salado culture. Set in the northeast corner of the Sonoran desert, the monument is not only home to well-preserved ruins, but beautiful red cliffs and Saguaro cactus as well. Visitor Rating (write your […]
Casa Grande Ruins
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Arizona, protects a large ancient ruin (the so-called “big house”) of the native Hohokam people in southern Arizona. It was declared a National Monument in 1918, but its federal protection had been underway since 1892 making it the first reserve for a prehistoric cultural site in the U.S. Visitor Rating […]
Tumacácori
Tumacácori National Historical Park in southern Arizona preserves the sites of a handful of Spanish missions and settlements that were part of Spain’s advance into what is now the southwest United States. Named for the O’odham village it was built near, the main site at Tumacácori was preserved as a National Monument by Theodore Roosevelt […]
Montezuma Castle
Montezuma Castle NM, Arizona, protects a well-preserved ancient Sinagua Indian ruin in the side of a rock wall off I-17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Visit. We visited Montezuma Castle as part of our 8-Park Southwest tour during March. In one day, we […]
Mesa Verde
Established in 1906, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is one of the oldest national parks around and is still the only national park founded to protect something man-made. In this case, it’s several of the largest and best preserved ancient Puebloan cliff dwellings in the US. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP […]
Canyon de Chelly
Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de SHAY) is home to brilliant red canyons and ancient ruins set in the heart of the Navajo Reservation in northeast Arizona. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Visit. We visited Canyon de Chelly as part of our 8-Park Southwest tour in March 2004. […]