Day Trip To Chaco

The road in

August 2 – Day off with big plans! We got up at 7 with the intent of being on the road at 8 and clocked out of the park at 8:10 so not bad. I packed the little cooler with drinks, water and lunch and we headed to Chaco Canyon to Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico. We have wanted to go for a long time but it just never worked out until today.

It was a long ride. Almost 3 hours from the park to the park. Bill didn’t drive too fast on the main roads and then we had 16 miles of dirt and gravel road, which he took really slow and at one point we were behind a road grader. We passed a few houses fairly close to the road, some had hogans and sweat lodges. Many houses were really far back in on dirt roads. Now this is a long way out! Most of the people living on the mesa are Navajo. At the park entrance its back to paved road for the last 2 miles which was nice.

What Pueblo Bonito looked like
in its day

We went right into the video about Chaco and it was very well done, accentuating the cultural ties of the location to the American Indians. We checked out the exhibits in the visitor’s center and Bill got recommendations of what sites are best to see. The literature said to allow 45 minutes to an hour for each site and there are 5 in Chaco Canyon on a loop road. We knew we didn’t have 5 hours to spend so the volunteer suggested the Pueblo Bonito because it’s the largest known Pueblo and Casa Rinconada because it has the largest known kiva. Our first stop was Pueblo Bonito and it is huge. Since we knew it would take us a while, we had our lunch in the car first. It’s about ½ mile walk to and around the site and back. There are guide books available at each site with numbered areas pointed out. This site fell prey to a huge rock fall in the 1940’s that destroyed 30 rooms that had been excavated. The pueblo sits back rather close to the rock wall of a mesa and the piles of rock that fell were massive. The tour walk takes you back around and over the rocks and up on some so you can see down in the pueblo. We didn’t realize we’d get to go inside too. There are no rangers around to keep an eye on people and parts are roped off and you are not to climb on any of the walls. This one in its prime had buildings 5 stories tall. That in itself is amazing for places built in 800AD. This pueblo had over 600 rooms. Now they aren’t all big rooms, and there are lots of kivas. We were able to see some of the original timbers which was amazing also since they are over 1000 years old and subjected to the harsh weather in northern New Mexico.

Pueblo Bonito from one end

Historic Cemetery

From Bonito we stopped at Pueblo Del Arroyo where I went to the pueblo while Bill walked to the historic cemetery. Richard Wetherill, who excavated at Mesa Verde previously, came to Chaco next and excavated with a team. They sent crates of artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History in New York where they remain today. Although he and the team were frowned upon for their “style” of archeology, he liked the area and homesteaded and set up a trading post. He was murdered, supposedly by an Indian, and is buried in the historical cemetery.

Next we stopped at the Casa Rinconada. It’s actually a village of small sites but has a huge kiva, known at Great Kiva. It has a special entrance on one end and a room for the shaman or priests to dress and prepare and to enter down into the kiva. It has more seating and ceremonial fire pits, etc.

Chacoan Stairway

As we drove on around the loop back to the visitor center we passed a Chacoan Stairway. It was carved into the rock leading out of the canyon. There are many of these stairs that connect ancient road systems hundreds of miles in 4 directions. Their intent, it is thought, was to make the roads straight and easy for visitors and traders to come for ceremonies and trading.

We really enjoyed seeing the remains of the Ancient Puebloens, also called Anasazi. What they accomplished is amazing. They travelled up to 60 miles for the wood to put the ceilings/floors in and for heating and cooking, then to shape thousands upon thousands of stones into flat rectangle pieces to build they sites. Totally amazing!

On the way out we stopped at the campground for a look. Bill said he would NEVER drive our RV on those roads and brink our RV, but still we wanted to check out the accomodations. The sites were pretty small and had no services, but they did have 2 bathhouses. It would have been nice to come camp over night and do more sites over a 2 day period, as it was really hot out. There were quite a few tents and only 2 small teardrop RV’s.

We were faster going out than we were coming in, even though we had to slow or stop for cows and horses on the road. There are no fences so the all just roam freely about. The grader was off to the side so we didn’t have to slow for him and Bill drove a little faster going out. We stopped in Aztec at a Safeway. I only got a few things, 2 being bottles of Blue Teal Riesling wine. They didn’t have the Rojo Red, so maybe next time we go to Aztec or Farmington I can get some.

We thought we wouldn’t get home til at least 6 but we were a little early, 5:30. We stopped by to see if Harlan could watch Xena again tomorrow and he said he could, so we left him with our Mule and came home. Some of the volunteers were meeting down at Newell’s “vacation” spot in Windsurf Beach so we went down for a while to visit with them. They are all lots of fun and we had a ton of laughs.

We couldn’t do much checking our sites without the mule but Bill rode his bike around. I made a batch of layered brownies to take to Newell’s tomorrow night for the Volunteers’ weenie roast.