site between about A.D. 1000 and 1125. Grants volcanic sites Travel south on McKinley County Road 19 to NM 122, turn left and travel the road to Grants, where there is the New Mexico Mining Museum. Continue on NM 122 to NM 117 and drive south to the El Malpais National Monument, made about 3,000 years ago by lava flows. Return to Grants and from NM 122, take NM 53 south to the Ice Cave and Zuni-Bandera volcanic field, where there is the "Chain of Craters" of cinder cones. El Morro Drive west on NM 53 to El Morro National Monument, a large butte that appears "like a huge ocean liner" on the horizon. Zuni Pueblo Continuing west on NM 53, the Zuni Pueblo with six original sites was the goal of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in his search for the "Seven Cities of Gold." Gallup Gallup is located north on NM 602, where there is a mural to the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, Indian crafts for sale, a Visitor's Center, the Rex Mining Museum, and the historic El Rancho Hotel & Motel. Trading posts Two Grey Hills and Toadlena are two trading posts located north of Gallup in Newcomb on U.S. Route 491. There are about 1,500 Navajo people living near the trading posts, some of whom who sell their woven rugs at the trading posts. Farmington Farmington, where two thirds of the surface water in New Mexico flows through area rivers, is north on U.S. Route 64. Recreational trails and the Farmington Museum are key sites. Aztec Ruins National Monument Two pueblo ruins at the Aztec Ruins National Monument, an outlier of the Chacoan Canyon site, are near Bloomfield, which is east of Farmington off of U.S. 64. Badlands recreation areas South of Bloomfield off of NM 371, in the badlands of New Mexico, are the Bisti Wilderness Area, De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area, and Angel Peak Scenic Areas. Beklabito Beklabito (also spelled Beclabito), a Navajo community, is located west on U.S. 64. The scenery includes Navajo hogans, red sandstone formations and yellow and gray-striped hills. History The Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway was made one of the New Mexico Scenic Byways after July 31, 1998 and by 2013. It was designated a National Scenic Byway by the Federal Highway Administration on January 19, 2021. Gallery See also Scenic byways in the United States Trail of