All About Chaco
After giving Blue Lightening a sponge bath and enjoying a delicious breakfast of something off the roller thing at the gas station, I headed WNW out of Cuba, NM on highway 550. Target destination – Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The highway was fantastic and the secondary roads were great; until they weren’t. About 10-12 miles of brutal roads once again. First half was county maintained which meant endless washboard or thick gravel. Remainder was unmaintained similar to, but not as bad, as yesterdays mess. Pretty sure I lost feeling in my right hand and both butt cheeks by the time I got to the park. Good news was the park roads are actually paved.
The park consists of a visitor center, twelve Chaco great houses or sites, and a campground. Six of the sites are immediately accessible along a nine-mile paved loop within the site. The remainder require hikes up to about 7 miles roundtrip and up to 500 feet of elevation gain. Given that it was already 76 degrees at 9:15 when I arrived at the visitor center, I opted to do only three of the twelve sites: Hungo Pavi, Chetro Keti, and Pueblo Bonito. Pictures from each are below.
The Chaco Canyon was the center of the Chaco culture from the 800’s to late 1,100’s but many of the sites remained occupied for much longer.
Pueblo Bonito
Chetro Keti
Hungo Pavi
There were a few birds at the site including one new species to me – Canyon Towee. Other wildlife included a coyote, a few lizards, and some sort of ground squirrel/chipmunk.
After baking in the sun for 2.5 hours at the Chaco Culture NHP, I decided to hop on the bike and head north about 70 miles to another Chaco site – the Aztec Ruins National Monument. This is a site that was “discovered” in the early 1920’s and the large kiva was restored in 1934. The site is relatively small and appears to have been occupied slightly later than the sites in the Chaco Canyon.
One interesting note is that the visitor center in the Chaco Culture NHP doesn’t have any relics from the site displayed in their visitor center even though all the display cases are constructed. The story I got from the ranger at the Aztec Ruins site is that a previous superintendent rushed the construction of the displays without taking into account the need to maintain temperature and humidity in the display cases. Oops.