Largo Canyon, New Mexico

In the winter of 2013 I visited this awesome place. I never even knew it existed even though it is only an hour from where I was living at the time.

A little outside of Farmington, New Mexico sits a town called Blanco, which is south of current day Navajo reservoir . If you bat an eye you’ll miss it. Near there you can turn south on an oil field road which takes you down into Largo Canyon and Gobernador Wash. About a 20 mile drive on dusty dirt roads there are little known gems scattered among the sagebrush and sandstone cliffs. This area is desolate and seldom traveled except for oilfield workers and ranchers, in the three days we were out there we only saw three people and at the BLM sign in boxes there had been no-one there in months.

The Pueblitos of Dine’tah were Navajo defensive structures built in the late 1600’s to late 1700’s to defend the Navajo homeland from Ute raiding parties from the north. (I assume the Utes were after their women and corn!) The rock art dates back to the ancient Puebloans of the Chaco culture all the way up thru the Spanish conquistadors and on to the early ranchers who inhabited the canyon. Crow Canyon is probably the best example of this with about a quarter mile cliff band covered with hundreds if not thousands of these petroglyphs and pictographs. Also scattered up in the hills all around the area are stone structures with small doors and windows usually perched on top of a cliff face or rock with toe holds carved into the rock for access. The structures are quite well preserved for being 4-500 years old, some of them still have intact roof structures with fireplaces……

My son and I took “The Turd” ( my brown VW van I owned at the time) out there and camped for 2 nights ( theres a great camp spot under some cottonwood trees at the mouth of crow canyon along the wash) and wandered around the area looking at all this amazing history that most locals in this area don’t even know exists…… You will need to do a little digging to find info on this place, the BLM barely even has any info on it except a lame map and a small brochure I found, but only after asking about it at the Aztec Ruins rangers office. If you’re ever in the area and have a full day I highly recommend going out there and checking it out. Just be sure to bring a lot of water and a full tank of gas, because the closest gas and supplies are in Bloomfield.

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