May 11
Once again it is very late. I will write comments about Chaco Culture and El Morro tomorrow, the 12th. All this traveling, revising hotel schedules (which happened tonight), managing photographs, and adding two sections to the website everyday makes me at times look forward to when the Quest will be finished. But I am still having fun.
I am back. I just added the text for May 12. Yesterday’s drive into Chaco Culture could be considered uneventful. To me, that means I did not get a flat tire or a busted car. I came in through the north entrance, which meant 21 miles of “County Roads”. The first eight miles was pavement. But the next seven were on stone with some gravel and sand. After that, the washboard effect kicked into high gear, with some nasty holes and large rocks. That was slow going. Maybe the NPS and county government feel that if they were to pave the entire 21 miles, more visitors would show up and overwhelm the park. Right now, you have to want to see Chaco Culture in order to accept the drive that awaits. I crossed paths with two people who were not going to miss this park. They are from Anchorage, Alaska. The man said he wouldn’t mind doing the same Quest as me. He wants to see as many of our National Parks as possible. Well, if he can get to Chaco Culture, then most of the other 424 should be a “piece of cake”. I wish him the best.
The nine-mile loop road allows a visitor to see a few massive complexes, with Pueblo Bonito being the star attraction. But each pueblo has its own uniqueness. One factor they have in common is the orientation to the stars, including the solstices and equinoxes. These people aligned the walls and windows of their structures with the heavens. When you stand at a distance in order to see two of the building areas, you can tell they “point” in the same direction.
A trail I recommend for the adventurous is to climb the staircase behind Kin Kletso. This takes you to the top of the plateau, allowing you to walk back towards Pueblo Bonito and view it from above. An extra 1.2-mile RT hike will take you to Pueblo Alto complex. This area is interesting in that it sits on top of the plateau instead of on the canyon floor. But Chaco Culture was the center of a wide-ranging trade network, so folks would come across the mesas and plateaus to reach the canyon area. Bones of parrots have been found on the site, which means trading went as far as Mexico. I was not lucky enough to see any artifacts like those sticking out of the ground, but if I had I would have reported them to the rangers. This is a theme stressed across all of the NPS’s outdoor parks.
El Morro NMon has two sections to tour. The primary attraction is the 2000+ inscriptions on the cliff walls, dating back to the 1500s, as well as petroglyphs from earlier times. The top of the mesa has ancient Puebloan ruins.