May 11, 2015 Chaco Canyon, NM

May 11  Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

41 degrees at 7 AM.  Expected it to be warmer as we are traveling south, but we are still at high elevations (6,000'+).  Today we are off to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park, an important site for anyone interested in studying the people and Culture of the Southwest.

We had read that the road into the Park is long and rough.  Truth.  We began with a few paved miles, then changed to graded dirt road, still nice and wide with occasional rough patches.  THEN, we pass a sign that says "End of County Maintenance" and the road gets more narrow and rough with washboard sections!

 There are a few homesteads along the way, but largely scrubby pastureland with cattle guards now and then.

 
 A few more miles and we enter the national Park and voila - pavement for the last few miles!  Quite a drive!

We arrive at the Visitor's Center where we pick up a map and find out that a ranger-led tour of the largest Pueblo begins in 10 minutes, so we hop back in the Trek and drive to Pueblo Bonito. We join about a dozen other folks and walk to the remains of this once huge pueblo.
  Planned and then built in stages, it was lived in from the mid 800's to the 1200's and eventually was four stories high, with over 600 rooms and 40 kivas.  There are many pueblos in this area, but this is one of the more excavated.  It has not been restored, but has been stabilized in several areas with the addition of cement, mortar or wooden beams.  All the construction is stone and mortar, with wooden beams and the walls were covered with a stucco-like covering which is largely gone now (referred to as Core & Veneer).

 We were able to enter and go through several of the rooms. The structures had to withstand cold winter temps (recorded record is -38) and hot 100+ summers, so required some flexibility.

 Large plazas were incorporated into the Pueblos and many of today's Pueblos use a similar layout. It is generally thought that the area was abandoned due to an extensive drought, but many descendants, today's southwest Indians (Navajo, Hopi and more),  still live in the general area and consider this sacred ground.

Built from rock from the canyon, the structure blends in beautifully.

Inside a large kiva, round room

 This whole Chaco Canyon area was a meeting place, a trading post and home to many diverse groups.  By 1050 it was the ceremonial, administrative and economic center of the San Juan Basin. They estimate that nearly 20 different languages were spoken here.  And there is a lot that is not known, like why this area, with no water source, was chosen, what the permanent population of the Canyon was (estimates range from 600 to 6,000).

We next walked to Pueblo Kin Kletso which used a columnar construction in part - thought to be influenced from Mexico.  It had a huge elevated kiva and about 280 rooms.

large elevated kiva

We head back to the Visitor's Center and watch a 20-minute film which emphasizes the spirituality of the site and importance to today's natives.

One of the rangers tells us that the best speed to minimize the bumpiness of the road is around 35 and we find that this helps on our way out.  We see some prairie dogs on the way back to pavement and 550S.  Boring drive, we keep going till we reach Clovis.  Almost in Texas, and Greg plans to make the long drive home tomorrow - about 11-12 hours!  Subway for dinner.