Every morning, at seven o’clock sharp, a hunched veteran shuffles into Albuquerque’s town square, his US Marines cap perched high on his head, and solemnly raises the national flags.

After the Stars and Stripes, the Mexican flag goes up, then the ensign of colonial Spain, and finally the banner of the Southern Confederacy. The New Mexico state flag also gets a pole — an ancient symbol of a blood-red sun, an acknowledgment that, if the poor duffer had enough rope and puff, he could spend all morning raising a further 22 flags over the plaza, one for each of the Native American nationhoods still in existence inside this one state. There are Navajos, Apaches, Zunis, Tewa . . .

Welcome to New Mexico, the most un-American corner of America. The old marine might take that as an insult, but it’s meant as a compliment — nowhere else in the USA have so many foreign countries and ancient cultures collided on one patch of the map, creating an almighty omelette of art, architecture, history and cuisine.

If you’ve come looking for theme parks, cheeseburgers and mega-malls, you might be disappointed here. But if you fancy crossing paths with the Inquisition, the Incas, the Ancients and even the real Masters of the Universe, this spectacular southwestern state is the polar opposite of the Land of the Bland.

America's most colourful state: New Mexico

indulged his senses in America’s most exotic and colourful state: New Mexico

Take the back roads across the USA

Paul Connolly heads off the highway and discovers the real heartbeat of America

• The best places to eat in New York

Going native in the USA

Oregon’s annual Nez Perce Indian gathering is a Native American ritual, a pilgrimage and a knees-up

Related Internet Links

• More USA holiday ideas

Related Links

• America's most colourful state: New Mexico

I had a week to encounter as many nationalities as possible in the manageably compact area between Alberquerque, Gallup and Santa Fe, and by the end of that time I had hardly begun. The distances might have looked small on the map, but it turns out this is still the Big Country.

After the three-hour desert drive from Albuquerque out to Chaco Canyon (natural first stop on a New Mexican culture- collecting trip), you could never talk about a “crowded planet” again. The rolling widescreen landscape spilt out into vast, curving, disappearing views that frazzled the brain as much as they dropped the jaw.

And if the echoing loneliness of the place didn’t leave you a little intimidated, the road signs certainly would: “Do not accept hitchhikers. Detention facility nearby.”

The mysterious aboriginal people who once made their homes in Chaco Canyon were inspired by all this epic emptiness to conclude that their life was much more interesting than simply hunting and gathering, farming and bartering.

They decided they were the heroes of a great cosmic adventure, the star acts in the story of the universe. You can see their point. At the time of the Norman Conquest, this gorge bustled with their grand building works, ambitious citadels and temple complexes springing up to match the supernatural wallpaper.

The civilisation didn’t work out, though — drought, disease, politics, nobody knows for sure — and now the ruins of Chaco’s abandoned semicircular cities bake silently in the canyon’s suntrap, the excavated ceremonial pits, cramped homes and airy public squares a fraction of what still lies beneath the sands.

You have to tackle a rutted, crumbling dirt road to reach this wondrous archeological site, but there’s some talk of paving the way soon. Leave it bumpy, I say. Chaco Canyon could be the American Machu Picchu — and just as busy. I’d rather enjoy the peace and pay the excess damage waiver on the car.

IT WAS TIME to cross Route 66, into the present. The people of Chaco and other canyon cities eventually dispersed into smaller communities, which have proved more resilient — miniature town-states that still go by the name the Spanish gave them, the Pueblos. There are 19 such settlements in New Mexico — some have pulled up the drawbridge on tourists entirely, others welcome respectful guests.

Times recommends

• Tuesday: the latest airport and flights news
• Wild Girls hit the Klosters slopes
• Red Sea: the complete guide