Deep in the Galisteo Basin which is south of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and east of the Ortiz Mountains sits quite a few Ancestral Puebloan ruins. One of those is what archaeologists call Pueblo Blanco Ruins. The site is on two separate parcels of private land which we had permission to explore and thank goodness we did. It was an incredible site. It dates from around 500 years ago after the Mesa Verdeans & San Juan Basin Ancestral Puebloans left that area and filled in the Rio Grande Valley. Some of the other sites are She, Colorado, Largo, San Cristobal, and San Lazaro. All of these sites are south of the also abandoned Pecos National Historical Park Site. There were quite a few room blocks, two kivas, and two sites of nearby petroglyphs.

The ruins were excavated around 100 years ago and refilled. There are only a few exposed walls but the ground was littered with pot sherds, tools, obsidian, and projectile points. Below are photos of the surrounding landscape, the grown over fallen walls, and some exposed walls.

An arroyo runs through the site which has collapsed some of the walls. In that collapsed part were found some of the most incredible pot sherds I’ve ever seen. There’s also a picture of some incredibly valuable Jemez Obsidian.

There were also two separate sections of petroglyphs. They were the real star of the site. On the sandstone cropping of rocks near the pueblo is the largest Awanyu in the American Southwest. There were three Awanyus and all of them were impressive. This largest one had a cloud for a tail which may represent the pueblo itself. And beneath one of the bends of the horned serpent was a water droplet which I was told represented some strong magic. There’s no doubt the Awanyu and the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl are related. Which brings up some interesting questions between the MesoAmericans and those across the Tortilla Curtain of the American Southwest. There was also an enormous bear, which was impressive.

Oh, and there were lots of faces that used the natural holes in the sandstone. There was also a very scary guy with sharp teeth and sharp claws. There was a big one and a little one that was inside an Awanyu. I also like the Boo guy from Mario.

At the other section of petroglyphs that were on boulders there were more masks, birds, lizards, turtles, and a possible dead man.

This guy was very interesting: it appears the place usually representing a heart has been etched out on purpose. Below the petroglyph was a Lion King style pride rock that's been weathered almost smooth. We were told by the archaeologist... there may have been some.. sacrifices.

Here’s a strange monkey looking face with a tail coming out of his head. And some neat hand and footprints.

Check out the beautiful views… that volcanic dyke over there is called Comanche Gap and it is filled with tons more petroglyphs I’ll hopefully see one day. Only problem is… it’s on Epstein’s Compound which it seems has been bought by a nefarious group.

This picture is from the site. This incredible statue and the pots around them were sealed behind two doors at the Pueblo. They were never opened by any group that came through. Not the Jumanos, not the Apaches, not the Comanches. Those pots may have held sacred water that was gathered from pools of water at the top of the sandstone outcropping. Those pools were at one time natural but had been expanded by the puebloans.

There was also some wildlife! A horned toad and Western Diamondback.