For almost 10 years, until 2025, I visited each year with my friends, Debbie and Liz, in Chimayo, NM, and stayed in the guest room of their adobe home along the Santa Cruz River.  Their home adjoins the Malpais, i.e. the BLM badlands where I hiked many an hour.  [All photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]

I’ve found many potsherds on the south facing slopes of this rock formation, typically with a white clay slip and black painted designs, but occasionally in red polychrome.  The nearby Santa Cruz river would have provided water for the small settlement.  The Jemez mountains are on the horizon.