Puerco Pueblo

Puerco Pueblo stands at mile 11 of Petrified Forest National Park's main road, counted from the north entrance. NPS calls it the only ancestral Puebloan village in the park that is easily accessible to the public. The masonry pueblo had about a hundred rooms and was occupied more than 600 years ago. The stabilized walls you see today are only a fraction of the archaeological site.

The people who lived here are believed to be ancestors of the modern Hopi and Zuni, who recognize the site as a Traditional Cultural Property. NPS avoids the older term "Anasazi", a Navajo word that it says carries a negative meaning, in favour of Ancestral Puebloan. The residents probably drew water from the Puerco River, which holds water underground even when the surface is dry, and from seeps, springs and natural rock basins. They farmed corn, squash and beans in the lowlands, hunted cottontails, jackrabbits, prairie dogs, pronghorn, mule deer and quail, kept domesticated turkeys and gathered grass seeds, mariposa lilies, yucca and prickly pear.

A short paved loop runs through the village. NPS gives its length as a third of a mile on one page and three-quarters of a mile on another. It is suitable for strollers and most wheelchairs and other mobility equipment, except a short spur. Halfway round, a mini-museum with cultural, archaeological and historical exhibits occupies a historic check station built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Along the south end of the trail, petroglyphs are pecked into the dark rock varnish on boulders near the path. One of them is a solar marker that interacts with the rising sun at the summer solstice. Nobody can read the images as words, because they are not a written language. NPS says some appear to mark the sun's movements, others may relate to clans, migration, hunting and ceremonies, and the Hopi, Zuni and other tribes have stories connected to them.

The site is fragile, so the rules are strict. Don't climb on the boulders or walls, don't touch the petroglyphs, and stay on the path; the area north of Puerco Pueblo is closed to entry. There are restrooms at the site. NPS suggests 10 minutes to an hour.