Page 223 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Southwest USA & National Parks

SOUTHERN NE W MEXIC O  221

craftspeople, and New Age
entrepreneurs, and there are
over 20 galleries, restaurants,
craft, and antiques shops. The
Old Coal Town Museum in
town displays a variety of old
locomotives, vintage vehicles,
buildings, and mining gear.
Tiny Cerrillos has a 2,000-year
history of mining turquoise,
gold, copper, and coal. Today, its
sleepy streets attract browsing
tourists who enjoy the fine Casa Centuries-old houses at Acoma Pueblo on a high plateau
Grande Trading Post with its
turqu oise mining museum, rock Acoma is one of the oldest 7 El Morro National
and gift shop, and petting zoo. continuously inhabited towns Monument
in the US, occupied since before
E Old Coal Town Museum the 12th century (see p43). Tel (505) 783-4226. Open visitor
2846 Hwy 14, Madrid. Tel (505) Today, fewer than 30 people center: 9am–5pm daily (6pm in
473-0743. Open Apr–Oct: 11am–4pm live on the 70-acre (28-ha) mesa summer); Hiking Trail: 9am–4pm daily.
daily, weather permitting. & 7 top year round; 6,000 others Closed Jan 1, Thanksgiving, Dec 25.
& 7 8  ∑ nps.gov/elmo
P Casa Grande Trading Post from local towns return to their
17 Waldo St., Cerillos. ancestral home for festivals Rising dramatically from the
Tel (505) 438-3008. & 7 and celebrations. surrounding plain, El Morro is a
∑ casagrande tradingpost.com As well as original pueblo long sandstone cliff that slopes
buildings, the village features the gently upward to a high bluff,
1629 mission church, San Esteben where it suddenly drops off.
del Rey. There are also seven Its centerpiece is the 200-ft-
ceremo nial kivas (see p165). (61-m-) tall Inscription Rock,
Acoma can be visited only on which is covered with more
a guided tour, where expert than 300 petrogly phs and
guides explain its rich history. pictographs from early pueblo
people, as well as some 2,000
inscriptions left by Spanish and
6 Grants Anglo travelers. For centuries,
people were drawn to this
* 9,200. n 100 N. Iron Avenue.
(505) 287-4802.  ∑ grants.org remote spot by a pool of fresh
water, formed by runoff and
An old mining cottage in Madrid, midway Between the 1950s and the snowmelt, beneath the bluff.
on the Turquoise Trail 1980s, Grants was famous as Here they carved their initials
a center for uranium mining. into the rock.
Yellow rocks of the mineral Among the signatures is
5 Acoma Pueblo were found by Navajo that of the Spanish colonizer
farmer Paddy Martinez Don Juan de Oñate (see p43),
Rte 23, off I-40. Open year round.
Closed some pueblo festivals. & on top of Haystack who, in 1605, wrote
7 partial. 8 obligatory. n Sky City Mountain, 10 miles “pasó por aquí,”
Cultural Center (505) 552-7870; (800) (16 km) from town meaning “passed by
747-0181. Open for hourly tours in 1951. The industry here.” An easy half-
8:30am–3:30pm daily. Closed Jun 24 has now declined, but mile (1-km) trail leads
& 29, Jul 9–14 & 25, 1st or 2nd visitors can relive its past the pool and the
week end Oct, 1st Sat Dec, for cultural heyday at the New Handcrafted pot inscrip tions on the rock.
events and in adverse weather. Mexico Mining Museum from Zuni
∑ acomaskycity.org – tours go underground Environs
to see a re-created mine. The people of the Zuni
The incredible beauty of Acoma Grants is well placed along Pueblo, 32 miles (51 km) west
Pueblo’s setting on the top of a Hwy 40/Route 66 for exploring of El Morro, are descendants
357-ft- (107-m-) high mesa, has the sights in the area, such as of the early mesa dwellers of
earned it the sobriquet “Sky City.” the badlands of El Malpais the region. Today, Zuni artists
Looking out over a stunning National Monument. are known for their fine
panorama of distant mountains, pottery and shell mosaic
mesas, and plains, it afforded the E New Mexico Mining Museum jewelry. Murals depicting
Puebloan people natural defense 100 N. Iron St. Tel (505) 287-4802. Zuni history can be seen in
against enem ies and helped Open 9am–4pm Mon–Sat. Closed the pueblo’s 17th-century
delay submission to Spanish rule. public hols. & 7 mission church.

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