Waiting 16 years to Spend Two Days at Chaco
5/14-15/20014 – Last night I decided to stay in Santa Fe and ended up at the Silver Saddle Motel on what looks like the old strip outside of the original city. I couldn’t have made a better decision for quality, service, or value. It’s definitely an old motor hotel, but it is clean and comfortable. The rooms are western themed-I stayed in the Lone Ranger, complete with pictures and a short version of the legend based on the old TV show on the wall. From the minute I walked in, customer service was excellent-a great recommendation for dinner, a top-notch continental breakfast, a friendly manner from start to finish. Dinner was at the Café Castro, inexpensive, very tasty, and right across the street. I had to laugh at the shower stall in the room. It reminded me of my first apartment in LaJunta (CO), a two room efficiency with a toilet on one side of the kitchen and a shower stall on the other.
I got on the road a little late, but the sun was shining and the ride up Hwy 550 to the turnoff to Chaco was striking-a mix of elevations (up to 7300 ft), vegetation, and geology. The road to the park-dirt and gravel-wasn’t too bad until I left the county road. I was happy to get to the pavement of the park. My first concern was getting a campsite. As I drove past, the sign said “campground full”. I thought I would ask anyway so the ranger called the camp host and sure enough-there were a few sites left. The Gallo campground not only sits in a semi-protected part of the canyon, but behind my campsite are a couple of 12th century Chaco ruins. They are small farmhouses, critical to the Anasazi move from hunter gatherer to mostly farming.
Next I set out to see as much of the park’s architecture and the canyon’s beauty as possible. I won’t repeat the story of Chaco Canyon and its culture here, but simply put, a culture unlike any before developed here from around 800 to 1200 AD. They farmed, built large structures called great houses (hundreds of rooms) became a highly sophisticated society of international trade, agricultural engineering, and ritual. At or near the end of the 13th century, they left, disappearing into other societies and modern pueblos. Some may have returned to ancestral lands and practices, as droughts doomed the farming needed to support large populations and society. My first stop was a quick mile leading to Una Vida pueblo. It was built around 1000 ADandthe hike features petroglyphs on the hill behind the structure. Next was Hungo Pavi and a great view of a Chacoan staircase-a set of stairs cut out of the rock leading up to the top of the canyon and one of their great roads.
The highlight of the day happened because the parking lot to the largest site-Pueblo Bonito-was full. I drove to the end of the loop road and found the trail to Kin Kletso and Pueblo Alto. Kin Kletso is a later site and features architecture influenced by newer adobe pueblos-it doesn’t fit the classic D-shaped mold of earlier Chacoan great houses. Right behind it is the first climb-scrambling up a chute-to the most northern and highest site in the complex-Pueblo Alto. It was a crossroads of local and northern trading and pilgrimage roads; a gathering place for Chacoans and travelers. The scenes overlooking the canyon from 15-250 feet above are spectacular. It allowed me to get “aerial” pics of three sites, including Pueblo Bonito, whose scale, I think, can only be appreciated from above. On the 1.5 mile trek back, I didn’t pay attention to the cultural sites, but marveled at the natural attractions of the place-the canyon itself, wildflowers, and openings featuring distant mesas and mountains. Another happy accidental discovery. Also on the way back, I decided I had to see more of this place, including adding at least three more miles of walking through history to todays 4.5. I will leave later and hope the guaranteed cold temps of the valley’s 6200 foot altitude don’t keep me in the sleeping bag.
Just so I didn’t feel too comfortable, there was enough wind while I cooked dinner to make me turn the stove around and put the box up behind it for protection. Soon after it was still and remained quiet. Once I got ready to sleep, I noticed bright light outside. No, there were no headlights or aliens, but a bright moon rising over the hills in front of me, one day after being full. I laughed and turned over. I woke up to a dead phone battery and since I was hiking early, I got up and plugged in to the car. The temp was 34°. A good sleeping bag, a raised tent pad, a few layers of padding under me (blankets, not my butt!) and a hat kept me cozy warm. Cold mornings also make the oatmeal taste better. I ate, packed, and got ready for another climb.
Today’s three miler would test my oatmeal breakfast. Like Pueblo Alto to the north, Tsin Kletsin to the south sits on top of the canyon rim. The climb is a slow weaving with a fairly straight quarter mile dirt path at the end. It was almost a game trail, and one with lots of animal tracks and sign. Tsin Kletsin is a little higher, taking me to an altitude near 6600 feet, 400 above the canyon floor. Unlike Pueblo Alto, there were no crowds at 40° and 8:30 AM. I made the trek slowly, the first big challenge squeezing through a slot that left its mark on my backpack. After that, I turned for a few more pics of the canyon and had an amazing view. Not only could I see four great houses and the village of farmhouses at Casa Rinconada, but a great angle on Pueblo Alto, complete with distant canyons and the very snowy mountains of southwestern Colorado. Once at the pueblo, I took a break inside an uncovered kiva. Pretty amazing-you can share space with ancient Americans in these unexcavated sites, unlike the ones below with “area behind sign closed” everywhere. On the way back down I had high hopes for wildlife sightings, as another hiker pointed out some elk at the bottom of the trail last night, but no luck. I did, however, get “aerial” pics of Chetro Ketl, the second largest great house, a cluster of buildings of Casa Rinconada, and a good pic of the great kiva at Rinconada, the largest in the canyon. This kiva is unattached to a great house and was probably used by everyone-it could hold hundreds. Kivas were gathering places for secular gatherings and probably religious rituals, as they are in today’s pueblos. The people believe they came from under the earth. When I was sitting in the kiva at Tsin Kletsin, I thought about this and our own Ash Wednesday ritual-“remember that you are dust…” Not too far apart. I circled back to the visitor center, stopping to take a picture of the staircase on the southern side of the canyon. The sign said it was cut to connect Tsin Kletsin. I think whoever blazed the trail in use today did us a favor-it was much easier than the tight switch of that ancient stair. After a break and souvenir shopping, I turned back to the loop road and made the trip to Pueblo Bonito and this time had a place to park. Bonito is the largest great house, the center and height of the Chacoan culture. Its 650 rooms and multiple stories-three and four in places-were built in stages over the entire 300 year rise and pinnacle of the culture Everything representing the Chacoan world in that day is here-massive corn storage, multiple kivas, a great plaza, indoor burials, and architecture that is not just practical, but serve another purpose. In one case, a diagonal window, cut in a corner, tracks the sun’s movement precisely during the fall, ending in a precise measurement of the winter solstice on an opposing wall. For much of the year, that window catches no sun.
I had one more site to visit today. To the north is the Salmon (pronounced like Solomon, without the second “o”) Ruin, about an hour’s drive from Chaco Canyon. Salmon is an example of two cultural events. First, it is a Chacoan pueblo, with all the hallmarks. It was built by Chacoan people in the 11th century. It also has a tower kiva. The Chacoans abandoned it in the 12th century, but it was re-occupied by puebloans possibly related to those from Mesa Verde later in the century. Its uniqueness is in the modifications these people made. Larger rooms were subdivided and rectangular rooms were repurposed by being modified into ovals or circles, creating more kivas. There is evidence of a large fire in the late 13th century and its ultimate abandonment soon after. The land was homesteaded by the Salmon family in the late 19th century, the family who owned the site until the 1950’s, probably providing more protection than sites on public land before they were parks. The staff at the non-profit-this is not a federal or state park-were helpful, the site guide and displays in their kiva shaped museum were first rate.
After that brief stop, I turned back south through eastern New Mexico and headed for Gallup. I picked an old motel on the city’s section of historic Route 66. I’m spending the night here with an eye towards another unique site in the state tomorrow. El Malpais is an area of lava flows. I’ve never been, but it sounds like Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument, which was closed due to the federal shutdown. I hope to camp there and one other spot in southwestern New Mexico before heading to Arizona.
