Chaco Canyon

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Link to video:     Chaco Canyon (about 5 minutes long)

Escaping the heat once again, we packed up Romin and headed up to northern New Mexico for the week of the 4th of July. We spent a couple nights in our favorite town of Taos where we had some great food and craft beer, watched fireworks, then headed over to Farmington to explore Chaco Canyon.

Chaco Canyon was a flourishing center for the ancestral Pueblo people from 850 to 1250. By 1050, Chaco had become the ceremonial, economic, and administrative center of the San Juan Basin where many peoples and clans met to share their ceremonies, traditions, and knowledge. At its peak, Pueblo Bonito contained 650 rooms with about 1,000 inhabitants. 

Located about 79 miles south of Farmington, New Mexico, the drive takes about 1 3/4 hours. The route meanders through mostly uninhabited country, and cell service becomes non-existent. If you break down, it could be a while before anyone comes along to help you, so be sure you have plenty of water and snacks in the car. Remember that you are on private tribal lands, so please be respectful of natives and livestock. 

Once you hit the dirt road, it is 13 miles of rough to very rough driving with lots of washboards. The last 5 miles before entering the park are very rough, and you have to watch out for rocks and deep ruts & potholes. If it's raining or rained recently, the road will be impassable, so please check the weather and current conditions before you go.

When you enter the park, the road is paved once again and it’s about 2 ½ miles to the visitor center. There is a nice little gift shop and National Park Service employees to give you information. Don’t forget to stamp your passport book and pick up a park map highlighting all the interesting stops as you drive to Pueblo Bonito. There is no restaurant or snack shop here so if you plan on making a day of it, you should pack a lunch. There is a water bottle fill station at the restroom building. Watch out for rattlesnakes! I did encounter one at the restroom building and thankfully my guardian angel was watching over me. 

The drive to Pueblo Bonito from the visitor center is about 3 ½ miles. When you get to the parking lot, it’s about a ¼ mile walk to the ruins along a dirt path. You are free to explore most areas and rooms. The day we were there was very hot, so we were only able to explore Pueblo Bonito. 

The following picture is of an original wooden beam ceiling in one of the rooms. It's about 1200 years old and withstood the test of time. This is a good example of how all the ceilings would have looked in their day. 

The round rooms are called Kivas, and were used as a center for rituals, political meetings, and casual gatherings of the men of the village. Men would enter kivas through a hole in the roof and descend a ladder to the center of the floor.

Women would gather and perform their rituals in other rooms and rarely entered kivas. Some of the great houses were up to 5 stories tall. As you walk around these ruins, it’s hard to imagine that they all had complete walls and roofs. 

The two images below show the settlement as it looks today and a mock-up of how it looked in its day. Click on the picture to enlarge it. 

This was a day well spent and I highly recommend visiting it in cooler weather like spring and fall. 

Peace & Love

Pete & Lori (and Romin!)