Hike Great North Road (Ancestral Puebloans), New Mexico

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The Great North Road (Ancestral Puebloans) is a 30 foot wide road that goes directly north from Pueblo Alto for almost 40 miles, and ends near the Salmon Ruins west of Bloomfield, New Mexico. Construction of this road required enormous effort. The builders had no shovels, axes, or wheelbarrows, no surveying equipment. When they encountered an obstacle, such as a mesa cliff, instead of going around it, they built steps into the face or perhaps constructed ladders, and continued in the same direction. No one knows why these wide thoroughfares, now all but obliterated by the ravages of time, were built. They had no wheeled vehicles. It has been conjectured that the afterworld was believed to lie to the north, and the road was a path that dead souls could follow. The road was also used for processions of unknown purpose. It is littered with pottery shards. The road passes through or very close to VoD, the Ahshislepah Primitive Study Area, a formation known as King of Wings, and the Bisti and Angel Peak badlands. Petrified wood is abundant, and dinosaur bones have been found in these areas. Pilgrims would have had to see these strange rocks and formations. There is no evidence that they stopped or had ceremonies there. Maybe they were so focused on a quest that these rocks and formations were not even noticed, unimportant parts of the landscape.

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