Chaco Canyon

After leaving the lovely Sagebrush Inn in Taos, New Mexico, we proceeded south, then west, then north again to Chaco Canyon. I was very excited about this, as this was the second major interesting place that I wanted to show Bernie, next to Arkansas. I was there 31 years ago when my boyfriend, Yarrow and I traveled there for the Harmonic Convergence in 1987. We camped out for 3 weeks in my old 67 Ford Econoline van. Some of you may remember it as it had purple mountains on the side that my sister Lisa painted. It was an amazing time, and I promised myself I would return some day.

Along the way we ran into some snow, and also saw a cool dam and reservoir.

I had recently read some reviews of the National Park at Chaco Canyon, and what stood out the most was a comment somebody made about the condition of the road. Granted, I do remember the road being very long, to the tune of about 20 miles from the main road into the park, but forgot about how long the stretch of road was that was not maintained. We discovered it was total washboard, and we had to drive less than 2 miles an hour. Any faster would have wiggled our already precariously perched bikes on our less than perfect bike rack completely off, and or shook all the bolts loose that hold our tent on to the top of the car. There were people flying past us in SUVs, but I would not want to be in one of those with any loose fillings in my teeth hahaha.

We finally got to where the campground was and picked out a nice spot near some ruins. We then proceeded to check in at the main office for the park. The staff was less than friendly, and afterwards I heard that this was not done intentionally, or to be rude, but that's "...just the way they are in New Mexico".

There was a steady wind blowing from the north, cold Canadian air, and despite adverse weather conditions, we were very happy to get camp set up and settle in for a few days in this amazing wide open space where ancient indigenous people once lived and thrived. The night air was brisk, and the view of the stars was nothing short of amazing. I saw two BIG shooting stars that stretched the length of my vision field.

We packed up our bikes and took a nice long bike ride up to a lookout that had a beautiful view looking Southwest to Fajada Butte. Back in the late 70s a woman named Anna Sofaer rediscovered a petroglyph carved into a rock on the butte, and noticed that there was a shaft of light going through the middle of it. She thought it was coincidental that it was noon on the solstice, and began a whole series of experiments to see if this was what she speculated was an ancient calendar used for the local peoples' planting and ceremonial purposes. It was later discovered that this indeed was an astronomical calendar of great importance, and is claimed to be the most technologically-advanced rock art found in the whole area. Please follow this link to read more about this fascinating find.

We met up with a couple from Carbondale, Colorado, Bob and Ginny, who allowed us to tag along with them while they toured around some of the ruins in the park. We went to Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the excavations, and our minds were totally blown. Please see photo gallery here. We also got to spend time with them hiking the next day out to the Wijiji Trail. This was really nice because I was able to ride my bike and have Gertie along off leash. It was about a mile and a half out to the ruins. There were also some pictographs on the wall, faint but still amazing to look at. Bob and Ginny brought their sweet pooch, Nellie (a Gertie lookalike!) along and both played until exhausted.

All in all it was an incredible stay here at Chaco Canyon, and though I often feel sad about the fate of these people, know that somehow they wound up in a better place.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next blog from Mesa Verde and other points in Colorado!