Puyé Cliff Dwellings

Several tours explore these ancient ruins, 5 miles west of the Santa Clara Pueblo at the entrance to Santa Clara Canyon. Abandoned around 1500, they’re similar in style to those at Bandelier National Monument. The most impressive are sculpted into the cliffside, with the rest freestanding on the mesa-top above. The big appeal is that the pueblo guides who show you around are directly descended from their original inhabitants, thus providing an actual connection with the vanished past.