Arrive To: Arrive at Santa Fe hotel between 4:00 and 5:30 PM for check-in and registration with Road Scholar program coordinator.

Dinner: Dinner in the hotel dining room from 6:00 to 7:00 PM

Evening: Program orientation and introductions in hotel meeting room from 7:00 to 8:30 PM

Lodging: DoubleTree by Hilton Santa Fe

Meals Included: Dinner

Puebloan Archeology and Anthropology/Guided bus and walking trip through Santa Fe/Archeoastronomy Discussion

Note: Walking trip in downtown Santa Fe will include introduction to many historic sites in Plaza area; bus trip will familiarize you with Santa Fe

Breakfast: Breakfast in hotel dining room from 7:00 to 8:00 AM

Morning: Classes on Puebloan Anthropology/Archeology from 8:00 AM to noon (with breaks each hour)

Lunch: Lunch in the hotel dining room from noon to 1:00 PM

Afternoon: Board bus at 1:30 PM for field trip to explore some special areas of Santa Fe. Part of the trip will be a guided walk through the most historic places in the downtown area. Return to hotel at 4:30 PM.

Dinner: Dinner in the hotel dining room from 5:30 to 6:30 PM

Evening: From 7:00 - 8:30 PM, there will be a discussion/lecture on Archeoastronomy and you'll learn how ancient peoples from Egypt to Peru to Chaco Canyon used Archeoastronomy to know when to plant and harvest crops, conduct seasonal celebrations and religious ceremonies, and to plan many other aspects of their lives.

Lodging: DoubleTree by Hilton Santa Fe

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast in hotel dining room from 7:00 to 8:00 AM

Morning: Depart for Cortez, Colorado at 8:00 AM. Drive across northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, with some stops for photo opportunities, as well as discussion on the way with your study guide about the archeological/anthropological significance of areas you'll travel through.

Lunch: Box lunch while in transit

Afternoon: Continue traveling to Cortez. Arrive at the Baymont Inn Cortez at approximately 4:00 PM for check-in.

Dinner: Dinner at 5:30 PM at Nero's Restaurant. Nero's is a very popular restaurant in Cortez, featuring Italian food, but with other choices as well.

Evening: Free evening for rest and relaxation!

Lodging: Baymont Inn and Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast in hotel dining room from 7:00 to 8:00 AM

Morning: Depart at 8:00 AM for an exploration of Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde, Spanish for “green table,” offers an unparalleled opportunity to see and experience a unique cultural and physical landscape. The culture represented at Mesa Verde reflects more than 700 years of history. From approximately A.D. 600 through A.D. 1300 people lived and flourished in communities throughout the area, eventually building elaborate stone villages in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Today, most people call these sheltered villages “cliff dwellings.” The cliff dwellings represent the last 75 to 100 years of occupation at Mesa Verde. In the late 1200s, within the span of one or two generations, they left their homes and moved away. The archeological sites found in Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States, offering visitors a look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people. Twenty-four Native American tribes in the southwest have an ancestral affiliation with the sites at Mesa Verde.

Lunch: Picnic and/or box lunch

Afternoon: Continue field trip at Mesa Verde National Park

Dinner: Dinner at 5:30 PM at Nero's. Nero's is a well-known restaurant in Cortez, featuring Italian cuisine. You'll find other types of food available to you as well.

Evening: Free evening.

Lodging: Baymont Inn and Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast in hotel dining room from 7:00 to 8:00 AM

Morning: Bus departs at 8:30 AM for Hovenweep, Utah. Hovenweep National Monument protects five prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border. Multi-storied towers perched on canyon rims and balanced on boulders lead visitors to marvel at the skill and motivation of their builders. Hovenweep is noted for its solitude and undeveloped, natural character. The Square Tower Group is the primary contact facility with a visitor center and interpretive trail. Human habitation at Hovenweep dates to over 10,000 years ago when nomadic Paleoindians visited the Cajon Mesa to gather food and hunt game. These people used the area for centuries, following the seasonal weather patterns.

Lunch: Box lunches from Cortez restaurant, Once Upon A Sandwich

Afternoon: Bus continues on to Canyon de Chelly, arriving around 6:00 PM for check-in at the Thunderbird Lodge.

Dinner: Dinner at 7:00 - 8:00 PM in the Thunderbird Cafeteria

Lodging: Thunderbird Lodge

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at Thunderbird Cafeteria from 7:00 to 8:00 AM

Morning: Depart at 9:00 AM for a driving exploration of the north and south rims of Canyon de Chelly. At the base of sheer red cliffs and in canyon wall caves are ruins of Indian villages built between A.D. 350 and 1300. Canyon de Chelly National Monument offers visitors the chance to learn about Southwestern Indian history from the earliest basketmakers to the Navajo Indians who live and farm here.

Lunch: Lunch at Thunderbird Cafeteria from 1:00 to 2:00 PM

Afternoon: Bus departs at 2:00 PM for Aztec, New Mexico

Dinner: Dinner at Three Rivers Eatery and Brewery around 5:30 pm. A favorite of many locals, you'll find a wide variety of food choices.

Evening: After dinner, the bus continues to Aztec, New Mexico for check in at the Step-Back Inn.

Lodging: Step Back Inn

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at Sonya's Cookin' USA Restaurant from 7:00 to 8:00 AM.

Morning: Bus departs for Salmon Ruin, named for George Salmon who homesteaded the property in the late 1800s. The initial construction phase has been dated to A.D. 1080-1090 and the site is known as a Chacoan "outlier," meaning a Great House built in the Chacoan style of architecture and masonry. The original inhabitants of this site abandoned it about A.D. 1120, possibly moving to the new site being constructed at Aztec, N.M., about 10 milres to the north. The site was reoccupied about A.D. 1180, probably by local San Juan Basin people, leaving traces of their own northern ceramic and masonry styles. The final abandonment took place about A.D. 1285 during a major 40-year drought that caused a general abandonment of the entire region.

Lunch: Lunch at Sonya's Cookin' USA Restaurant at 12:30 PM.

Afternoon: Bus departs at 2:00 PM for a visit to Aztec Ruins. Aztec Ruins National Monument preserves structures and artifacts of Ancestral Pueblo people from the 1100s through the 1200s. It may have been seen as another Chacoan outlier, however, more recent research indicates it may have been the second Chacoan "capitol," established and occupied after the abandonment of Chaco Canyon in the 1150s. Aztec itself was abandoned about A.D. 1275 as a result of the 40-year drought. Some Southwestern archeologists believe the Chacoan "elites" then moved south and established Paquime, another immense site in northern Mexico. The Aztec monument was established in 1923 with the excavation and reconstruction of Aztec West by Earl Morris and designated a World Heritage Site in 1987. Bus returns to Step Back Inn at 4:30 pm

Dinner: Bus departs at 6:30 PM for dinner at selected restaurant. Return at around 8:00 PM.

Evening: Free time.

Lodging: Step Back Inn

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Check out and departure at 6:15 AM for breakfast at Sonya's Cookin' USA

Morning: Bus departs Sonya's Cookin' USA at 7:30 AM for Chaco Canyon. Watch a film en route. Bus will be met in Nageezi by a school bus; the road into Chaco is rough and unpaved, and motor coaches are advised not to travel the road. A school bus company does most group transport into the Canyon. A bit bumpy, but it's the only way to get there! Arrive at Visitors' Center at 10:00 AM. Chaco Culture National Historical Park preserves one of America's most significant and fascinating cultural and historic areas. Chaco was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between A.D. 850 and 1150. It was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area. It is remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, and its distinctive architecture. To construct the buildings, along with the associated Chacoan roads, ramps, dams and mounds required a great deal of well-organized and skillful planning, designing, resource gathering and construction. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture, one that amazes us a thousand years later.

Lunch: Enjoy box lunches from Main Street Bistro at Chaco Canyon

Afternoon: Your exploration of Chaco Canyon continues until 4:00 PM, when bus leaves for Cuba, New Mexico.

Dinner: Dinner at El Bruno's restaurant at 5:30 PM. El Bruno's will offer you a chicken dish or a traditional northern New Mexican entree (which is really tasty!).

Evening: Travel from Cuba back to hotel in Santa Fe. Arrive in Santa Fe about 9:00 PM.

Lodging: DoubleTree by Hilton Santa Fe

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Depart From: Independent departures from the hotel. Checkout time is by 12:00 noon.

Breakfast: Breakfast is served buffet style in hotel dining room from 6:00 AM until 10:00 AM; you may depart at any time in the morning. Check-out time from the hotel is 12:00 PM.

Meals Included: Breakfast