Chaco Canyon is a place I have wanted to go to for many years, but the road to the canyon is 18 miles of washboard gravel, and I do not want to cause any damage to my motorhome. Last time I drove several miles on a gravel road, a piece of inside trim fell off inside my motorhome, so damage is likely.
The reason the road to this national monument is not paved is because it goes through a Navajo reservation, and they do not want more people coming to the ruins and possibly causing more damage. These ruins were uncovered over 100 years ago, after having spent several hundred years mostly covered with desert sand. Uncovering the ruins meant that they were not open to the weather and archeologists digging for remnants of the past. Plus, the stones were originally held together with mud, which got soaked in rains and was repaired with cement. In fact, large parts of some walls that are visible today were reconstructed with cement to hold stones together, which means not all the walls are original.
While being able to see this unique ruin is important to understanding past native cultures, from the Navajo's perspective, this was damage. Hence, they will not allow the road to be paved so more people can visit.
So, I decided that this year, I would take advantage of the private tours offered through the nearby Salmon Ruins museum. They drive four-wheeled vehicles and provide water and lunch. It was expensive, but the drivers are degreed archeologists, so they are very knowledgeable.
Because I have so many photos, I have broken this posting into two pieces. The first is the several ruins that are in the area, and the second is the largest of the ruins, Pueblo Bonito.
This is the closed visitor center. It is disappointing to not be able to visit, but that is the case this year with a lot of national park visitor centers because of COVID-19.
This area is extremely dry, but when the ancient peoples lived here, there was water in a nearby river because the water table was much higher. The area around Chaco Canyon supported several thousands of people. However, in the 13th and 14th Centuries there were several multi-decade long droughts that made life much harder. Eventually, the many pueblos in this area were abandoned. There are Navajo people living in this area, but they came from eastern areas and are not the descendants of the people who once lived here. They pueblos got covered with sand until they were discovered in the late 1800s. Here are some places to find more information on these peoples:
- https://www.nps.gov/chcu/learn/historyculture/index.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park
When the White man came and started digging well and using river water to irrigate crops, the water table dropped and the river became dry.
One of the interesting things about this area is the variety of stonework. Some of it is very old and some slightly less old. Notice that this wall is constructed of mostly fairly large stones on either side with rubble in the middle. Basically, they used what was nearby and available.
These walls are made from a lot of smaller, flatter stones. They would have used mud as mortar.
Most walls in this area were flat on the outside and inside. Sometimes this required knocking off the rough edges of stones. Notice the shape of the door and the location of some small windows.
They chose a location with a great view. The formation on the right was a marker that helped people find their way across a flat desert.
Most of the dwellings were built backed up to this or a similar cliff. Maybe to break the wind?? No one knows.
Rows of logs indicate the places where a second story was located. The logs also allow the walls to be dated.
Another pueblo.
These two walls have alternating large and smaller stones.
Each pueblo or "great house" would consist of many, many small rooms and were probably occupied by extended families. Each had at least one large kiva, or ceremonial pit house. The two big holes probably held two large trees that supported a roof.
It was a cool and sunny day, with a nice breeze--very pleasant. You will note that for a lot of reasons, there were not a lot of other people visiting here, which was nice.
Next posting will focus on Pueblo Bonito, the large semicircular pueblo you see a lot of pictures of.
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