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HIKing Largo and Crow Canyons

story and photos by Michael Richie

Getting Started

WHERE: The Crow Canyon Archeological Area and pueblitos are clustered north and south of a major road junction where the Gobenador Road from the east meets the Largo Canyon through-route. Approach the junction from the north or south via dirt roads in Largo Canyon. The southern turn-off into Largo Canyon is at Counselor on US Hwy 550. Turn right; in about 9 miles stay left at a major fork and continue for 15 miles to the junction. From the north, head east past Blanco on US Hwy 64 for a few miles. Turn right into Largo Canyon. Continue south for nearly 30 miles to the junction.
To get to Hooded Fireplace and Largo School ruins, turn west at a turn-off 1.5 miles south of the junction. At .5 miles past this turn-off, turn east to Tapacito and Split Rock ruins. Expect to negotiate confusing forks, steep climbs, stream crossings and rough roads. A 4x4 is advisable even in good weather. The marked east turnoff into the Crow Canyon Archeological Area is located 7 miles north of the junction.

WHEN: Year-round, with exceptions arising when precipitation creates difficult, even dangerous, road conditions.

INFO: A map and interpretive brochure, “Pueblitos of Dinetah,” are available for $.50 from the Farmington BLM office (505-599-8900); or Chief Archaeologist Jim Copeland (505) 599-6335.

Lost in time, beautifully crafted stone walls grow from the edge of a sheer cliff top. Largo School Ruin is a Navajo "pueblito," constructed in the early 1700s as a defensive site and lookout post. The spectacular view from this miniature castle stretches several miles both north and south along Largo Canyon in a section where many large side canyons join the main wash. In the pueblito's time, these lush bottomlands held shaded cottonwood bosques, corn and squash plots and numerous hogans in the ancestral homeland the Navajos call "Dinetah." I can imagine the frenzied activity below as the sentinel's cry alerts the residents that marauding Utes are in the area.
I'm taking a break from exploring several pueblito sites in the Bureau of Land Management-administered, sandstone rimrock country southeast of Bloomfield, N.M., to do a little vicarious time traveling. An estimated 200 pueblitos are hidden on cliff tops and canyon rims across Dinetah. Literally thousands of petroglyphs, mostly Navajo but some from Pueblo and even older Ancestral Puebloans, grace alcoves and overhanging amphitheaters along the canyon floors. Finding just the half dozen or so mini-fortresses and rock-art galleries shown on the handy BLM map requires driving rough unsigned roads, rugged cross-country hiking, often strenuous climbing and very sharp eyes.
Each pueblito has a uniquely beautiful setting and architectural design. The thrill of encountering living history makes the rigors of the hunt well worthwhile.
Archeological evidence suggests that the Navajos arrived here by the early 1500s and settled in five large parallel canyons. Largo, Carrizo and Gobenador, the largest of them, are located just west of the Continental Divide. Carved from huge mesas, the canyons form multi-branching watershed draining northwest into the San Juan River. The earliest archaelogical sites are mud-roofed hogans. But Navajos learned from the Pueblo tribes, and later the Spanish, all to give rise to a style unique to agriculture, pueblo building and rock art - developing southwestern Navajo culture as we know it today. Used primarily as defensive sites, lookout and signal towers, pueblitos began appearing in the late 1600s in response to constant raiding from Utes in Colorado.
Well-marked Crow Canyon Archeological Area is an excellent place to begin your search. A reasonably accessible pueblito across the canyon on a mesa edge compliments several superb petroglyph galleries. Intricately carved images depict religious themes, mythological heroes, hunting scenes, plants, animals and even contact with Spanish soldiers. Easily recognizable Navajo religious figures such as the Humpbacked God, the Monster Slayer and the Yei'i, or Holy Ones, invoked by the nine-day Night Chant healing ceremony, are particularly prolific.
In the middle Largo Canyon area, six defensive sites are identified on the "Pueblitos of Dinetah" map (available from the Farmington, N.M., BLM offices). Largo School Ruin, Hooded Fireplace Site, Tapacito and Split Rock Ruin are located within Largo Canyon on the top of inner-bench walls a few miles from Gobenador road junction. Farther afield, Shaft House and Gould Pass Ruin (not on the map) are perched high on the upper mesa edges of side canyons.
By staying in continuous motion, I manage to visit four of the relatively closer sites within a few hours. Largo School Ruin resembles a tiny medieval fortress. Hooded Fireplace Ruin is named for a preserved mud-plastered fireplace in a room where the ceiling is still intact. One of the earliest pueblitos, double-walled, squat Tapacito Ruin, with its roof entry, was built in the 1690s. Picturesque Split Rock Ruin is very difficult to spot and reach. The low walls are perched on a 40-foot-high boulder resting near a high mesa edge.
After visiting the four lower pueblitos, I decide to find the 14-room Shaft House reportedly clinging to a cliff side far above the Crow Canyon rock-art panels. I take the Gobenador fork into Ice Canyon, find the turn-off and in 10 miles reach a ridgeline where a breathtaking, southern Rocky Mountain vista opens. Jagged, snow-capped peaks stretch for a hundred miles in an unbroken line from the Continental Divide east of Pagosa Springs, Colo., to Durango. Then, to the west, I saw the Gould Pass Ruin. On hands and knees I entered the waist-high doorway onto a walled balcony. Savoring the view, I wondered if the sentinels, ever-vigilant for Ute slave-hunting parties, took much comfort while cradled in view of the phenomenal sweep of distant snowy peaks.

When he's not exploring New Mexico's many hidden, high-desert adventure spots, freelance travel writer and photographer Michael Richie hangs his hat in Albuquerque.