On Halloween we drove to the Jemez mountains and spent the night alone in the Clear Creek Campground. It was still open, but winter was about to come to the mountains and no one else was out camping. Then, on November 1st we drove on to Chaco Canyon for the rest of the week. We had heard of Chaco Canyon for years and years and never went there. The canyon was the center of the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) world from about 850-1200 AD. It is notorious for having terrible access roads that are very hard on cars and RVs. But is also famed for being beautiful and magical and haunting: in other words a stunning place to visit. We are here to report that the access roads are much worse than reputed, and the canyon and artifacts are much more stunning than imagined. 

Autumn Leaves in the Jemez Mountains

Pine Forest

Rose Hips

The road towards Chaco Canyon

At the entrance of Chaco Canyon

The first grand vista upon entering Chaco Canyon:  Fajada Butte had been visible for miles as we drove across the mesa, but here it became the central landmark.

Several large pueblo ruins are scattered over about nine miles of the central canyon and mesas. This is a fragment of the largest ruin, Pueblo Bonito. 

It once stood 4 to 5 stories tall and held over 800 rooms.

The view from Pueblo Bonito westward towards Pueblo del Arroyo.

Mike in Bonito.

At Chetro Ketl.

Remnants of Kin Kletso.

Back in Bonito.

Looking towards Una Vida.

Pueblo del Arroyo.

The Great Kiva, at Casa Rinconada.

Doorways through Bonito.

The main building efforts occurred between 850 and 1200 AD. So these log beams were probably cut in the nearest forest 60 miles away and set in place about 1000 years ago. 

Detail of stonework.

These large rocks are from a section of the canyon wall that collapsed into Pueblo Bonito in 1941, crushing about 30 rooms at its northern wall. 

It was pretty cold each morning, comfortable by mid-day and hot in the afternoons.

Detail of wall construction: These walls were about 2 feet thick.

Back at the campground a dust devil swept along the dirt road causing chaos with a brief 60-70 mph wind.

Campfire coals form a flaming heart.

Elk on their morning walk through the canyon. 

A 40 foot tall Teddy Bear.

Rock Wren.

Fajada Butte again - in the late afternoon. 

Asters gone to seed.

Sunflower gone to seed. 

Blooming Winterfat plant.

Saltlover Plant.

Sagebrush Lizard.

A small plant turning Autumn yellow.

More Asters gone to seed.

Fajada Butte at sunset.

Autumn Cottonwood trees in the Chaco Wash. 

On our last day at Chaco, we hiked up a trail on to the southern mesa overlooking the canyon and beyond. 
It was only about a 3 mile hike (round trip), but the hike began by climbing about 400 feet vertically up the cliff wall. Then there is about a mile walk across the meadow of Sagebrush and Winterfat to the southern pueblo: Tsin Keltzin. 

Once on the top of the mesa, this is the view back into the canyon. You can see the Great Kiva just right of the center of the canyon in this photo. The Great Kiva is part of the Casa Rinconada Community, but the rest of the structures are not visible from this vantage point - they are behind the canyon rim. There are, however, six other pueblos in this picture that are very difficult to see because of the distances involved. The highest bump on the opposite mesa is the Pueblo Alto Complex, which is about .6 of a mile from Pueblo Bonito, which is at the base of the northern canyon wall about 1 mile from where we were standing.

The only other hikers that we saw that day. Nice folks from Alpine ,TX. This also gives a better view of Pueblo Alto and Pueblo Bonito (and a modern bridge across the Chaco Wash).

A meadow of Sagebrush and Winterfat along the trail. 

On the climb, the trail was marked primarily with rock cairns.

A long telephoto shot of the Pueblo Alto complex. The canyon wall is visible in the bottom third of this picture, and beyond the pueblo are the current Navajo residents. Outside of the park is the Navajo Nation.

And now we have some samples of petroglyphs that we found scattered about in our visit. 

Panther?

Sunbursts?

A snake?

 

In Tsin Keltzin, a rock marking the cardinal points. 

And a few images on the canyon wall about 100 yards from our campsite.

If you are interested in learning more about Chaco Canyon here is the link to a 1999 Robert Redford documentary on Amazon Prime:  https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Chaco-Canyon-Robert-Redford/dp/B08VF8SYB9

And there are many other resources. But the truth is that very little is truly known about Chaco and why and how it came to be. There is no written history of Chaco. Oral histories have many variations. And the theories abound.