Salinas Pueblo Missions, NM - Nov 2008

While at Manzano Mountains State Park, we took a couple of short day trips over to see two of the Salinas Pueblo Missions. Both of the sites -- Quarai and Gran Quivira -- were in beautiful settings and one could see why the Pueblo Indians chose them as places to locate.

Quarai (in the above photo) is in the foothills of the Manzano Mountains. The buildings were all made of gorgeous red sandstone that was quarried in the local area. This majestic building is the original chapel and the acoustics inside were amazing -- even without a roof.

The Quarai grounds were so tranquil and we enjoyed walking the path around the grounds. There were a few huge cottonwoods turning gold in a very pretty picnic area.

A close-up of the front of the Quarai chapel.


Scotty and Rudy perched atop of the low rise walls at the back of the Quarai chapel.

On a different day, we drove further out to the Gran Quivira Mission. It is located in the plains of the high desert, but sits atop a very high hill and has comanding views over the entire area. Here we are enjoying a peek out of one of the openings in the chapel wall.

While the main chapel is not as impressive as the one at Quarai, the surrounding buildings of the original village have been more extensively excavated, so there is a much better sense of the layout of the village. This is looking at the back of the chapel -- one can see the huge amount of rocks used.

Frank peeking out one of the remaining windows in the chapel.

Looking away from the chapel and out over the rest of the buildings in the village. These rock walls were the remains of what used to be living quarters and food storage areas.
Frank and the dogs checking out the largest of several of the below ground kivas -- used for ceremonial prayers and meditation.

Some of the pottery that had been excavated.