We wanted to go but they didn't let us go there without a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

It was another place, a bit more accessible and civilized, with Park Service staff, and plenty of parking and rest rooms... But I recall the ruins were well isolated from the facilities, and well preserved. It seemed very authentic.

You're right about this being an ancient and haunted land. We visited about a half-dozen archaeological sites on our trips out west and they certainly all had that creepy, spooky feeling to them. It made me think of Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. The original inhabitants felt nearby, like they had never really left. Their presence was everywhere, around every bush and rock

I once stopped by the side of the road to relieve myself and I pissed away a bit of loose soil that revealed a few fragments of ancient pottery. And it seems like every place you stopped, even the spots not on the maps and guidebooks, revealed ancient petroglyphs on the roadside stones and desert varnish.