Round Trip Distance: 0.4 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5908 - 6068 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Guadalupe Ruins
Fee: none
Attractions: pueblo, kivas
The Guadalupe Ruins are located about 50 miles southeast of Cuba, New Mexico. Sitting atop a high ridge the ruins with their two covered kivas are believed to have been an outlier of the Chacoan Culture who built their central site further to the west in Chaco Canyon and branched out from there building as many as 75 outlying communities, connected by roads, in an area spread over 30,000 square miles.
Getting there requires driving about 30 miles of dirt and gravel roads that are very good other than a couple of spots where there is deep powder that might require a 4WD vehicle. For turn-by-turn directions enter 'Guadalupe Ruins' into your driving app. You will be directed to turn south onto the San Luis Road about 23 miles east of Cuba which you will follow for about 21.5 miles before turning left onto the Guadalupe Road for the remaining 8 miles to the trailhead.
As the trail climbs gently up to the top of the mesa there are a couple of interpretive signs. The first sign reminds visitors how to help protect the site and the second gives a lot of interesting information about the site and its relation to the Chacoan culture including some of the facts mentioned at the beginning of this post.
A very minor scramble is required where the trail climbs up a short cliff to reach the bench below the top of the mesa.
Once the top of the mesa is reached the ruins are found stretching from one end of the long narrow mesa to the other. And from one side to the other.
Originally many of the rooms were probably more than a single story high.
The first of the Chacoan style kivas can be entered by a short ladder.
The entrance to the second kiva is more like a tunnel.
It is really nice that they built the covers over the kivas to help protect them and left them open to visitors.
A few fragments of pottery at the pueblo give an idea of some of the styles found at the site. Surprisingly there are more shards down on the lower hills than on the mesa itself. Be sure to leave these and all other artifacts where you find them for others to enjoy.
From a distance the Guadalupe Ruins, crowning the high mesa, must have been an impressive site. Something like an imposing city in the sky perhaps. It seems that ruins like these, interconnected by all their roads, would have given the Chacoan's a feeling of empire. The ruins are a little off of the beaten path but if you would like to see them for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
