Find Adventure in Aztec

We park at the top of a mesa in Crow Canyon, then cross sandstone benches to reach the Bridge of Wonder, walking across the 36-foot arch to stand suspended over a window onto pinyon and juniper woodlands. Off the side of a dirt road, we traverse washes spotted with deer and coyote footprints to reach a nameless arch. I scramble up a slope the texture of sandpaper to stand in the opening as the surrounding rock walls funnel a breeze through the gap.

Aztec perches on a corner of the same Colorado Plateau that’s made southern Utah an outdoor recreation magnet. But it draws a fraction of those crowds for trips that can blend tricky mountain-bike rides and arch hunting with doses of ancient sites, including petroglyphs and dwellings scattered over the canyons spiraling away from town.

 This underappreciated outdoors town lets its rich history shine throughout downtown, which manages to preserve the quaint feel of brick-lined, quiet streets while infusing energy through new businesses, restaurants, and amenities, including a newly renovated splash pad at Minium Park. 

But the pull of the past is never too far away. Right in town, Aztec Ruins National Monument draws international visitors to the remnants of a village that was a fundamental piece of the culture that built Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Rust-patinaed treasures ring the Aztec Museum & Pioneer Village, which features outbuildings that include historic replicas of businesses, a cabin, church, and general store, alongside antique farm and oil and gas equipment.

Wade Anderson moved to Aztec with his parents as a kid and understands its many charms. He opened Barefoot Bikes in 2022, certain that Aztec’s growing trail system and community of riders could support a bike shop. Three years later, he says, starting the store downtown feels like the right decision. Other businesses and restaurants have followed, including a blacksmith that opened just this summer. The community turns out for weekly bike rides and, if his plans go well, soon for organized bikepacking trips. 

As vice president of Aztec Trails and Open Space, he advocates for adding trails and maintains the loops already out there, with recent group projects installing signage on the renowned Alien Run Trails (which are, of course, named for the 1948 alleged alien crash-landing). 

“I always tell people there’s 350 days a year of good riding here,” says Anderson, who loves Aztec’s small-town feel. “There are two types of people: People that embrace it and people that think there’s nothing to do here. I usually find if they think there’s nothing to do here, they’ve never had anybody show them a good time.” 

That’s evident on my four-hour adventure with Dobbs through the canyons and mesas around Aztec. As he navigates the truck off the pavement, signs start to point toward Frances Canyon Ruins. He snugs his vehicle into the shade of a juniper, and we hike out to the rim of the plateau, where a two-story stone tower built centuries ago still stands sentry. Two interpretive signs offer some details about how the 40-some rooms once here comprised one of the largest sites in the Gobernador Phase of Navajo history, the triangular tower built as a defensive site in the early 1700s. 

We have the place to ourselves, and the quiet offers a moment of contemplation. But Dobbs sees something even broader in the spirit of the land. When he first moved from Texas in 2012, he couldn’t quite believe the open access that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management allowed to so many acres.

“You can just go,” he says. “It feels like freedom.”