AURA

I love this place. It’s the only village still standing of the sixty-six Coronado tells me his troops visited, and you can see why: It’s perched on a small New Mexico “sky island”, and I mean it’s way up there. It’s also supposed to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the U.S. In times past the Acoma Indians harvested water up on the mesa and farmed the plain below. They are still excellent potters and stockmen. And we have a couple pots from there.

You can see Acoma-made crafts, foods, and cultural / history presentations at the Visitor Center on the plain below. Shuttle buses leave from there to the city on top. (They don’t want you to take pictures, tempting though that may be. I’ve done a couple watercolors though.) A walk down the trail from the top to the Visitor Center below offers stunning views where the earth and the sky merge.

Festivals that are open to tourists are the so-called:
Governor’s Feast. Old Acoma; dances. February
Santa Maria Feast. McCartys Village Mission. First Sunday of May.
San Juan Day. Old Acoma. Late June.
St Peter’s & St Paul’s Day. Old Acoma. Late June.
Santiago’s Day. Old Acoma. Late July.
Fiesta Day (St Lorenzo’s). Acomita. Mid-August
Feast of St Estevan. Old Acoma; harvest dance. Early September and
Christmas Festivals at the San Estevan del Ray Mission, Old Acoma; dances, luminerias. Late December

Acoma is about 12 miles south of 1-40 from exit 102. The closest motel type accommodations are in Albuquerque and Grants.

Three miles north [of Acoma] on NM 23 is the even higher Enchanted Mesa where the tribe understands they lived until a storm washed out the only way up. That site is off-limits to tourists. Here are some links for you, but you have to go back to the text to click on them. We haven’t gotten into Alexa, yet. Sorry.

● Acoma pueblo tour – hours, fees

● History

● Art gallery

● Directions

● Events

● Contact

● 10 day weather forecast