Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument - Mountainair Headquarters Visitor Center — Attraction in Mountainair

I visited Grand Quivara, one of 3 sites of Salinas National Monument. Fascinating, extensive ruins of a fairly large community. One of the most interesting aspects is that there are Spanish churches and Native American kivas right next to each other. It was a major trading center of the Plains and Pueblo Indians when the Spanish came in the 1600s. The Spanish enslaved the Native Americans and forced them to build the Catholic churches and to provide food for the Spanish. The Spanish also forced the Native Americans to accept the Catholic religion, so those who continued to worship the Indian gods were forced to go underground, literally. After 50 years, all food stores were gone, and the Gran Quivara site was eventually abandoned. In 1680, the New Mexico pueblos rose up against the Spanish and revolted, and the Spanish were forced out of Northern New Mexico for a while. The Native Americans never moved back to Grand Quivira. Due to federal government cuts, the staff at the on site Visitor Center has been fired, but bathrooms are available. It's a 2-hour drive from Albuquerque to get there, but worth every second. The location is in good shape and really, really interesting. I recommend that you follow your visit up with a visit to the Salinas National Monument Visitor Center in Mountainair, about 25 miles away, to learn more about...

When I came in today around 4:35, the woman working told me they close at 5:00 and she gave me a very hard time for coming in so close to closing (it only takes about 5-10 minutes to go through their museum). She didn't let up either; it was literally the only thing she talked about the entire time I was there.

Not only did I feel berated, she also refused to let me purchase anything, refused to let me watch their short video (which I had plenty of time for) and based from what I overheard of the conversation, refused to give a ribbon to a child who came in immediately after me ( it sounds like national parks give these rippons out to help kids keep a record of the places they have visited.) Again, this was almost a half hour before closing. There was plenty of time to do all these things.

If a business tells customers that they are open until 5, the person working should be expected to serve the customers until 5. I understand if I would have came in late, or just a couple minutes before closing but neither one was the case; she simply decided she didn't want to work anymore.

For the record, I have been to well over 100 other national park visitor centers and always have a great experience. I guess there's always a bad...

I was told by the Ranger at the Quari-Salinas Missionary National monument that the main headquarters had more stamps, etc. Well when we arrived, there was a sign posted that the Ranger was out to lunch. There were two other couples there that were waiting also. So with some disappointment, we all left. He or she was gone for about an hour or so. When we arrived, it was 2pm. The couple before us said they were waiting half an hour with the others. We gave them another 20 minutes then left. Put someone there that wants to work instead of taking off. Lost some business of us visiting that wanted more stuff to buy. I suggest you have those rangers at the Quari make sure they're there before you...