May 22 - Arriving at Chaco Cultural National Historical Park

We arrived at Chaco Canyon just a few minutes after 5 PM on Friday evening, May 22. Since the Gallo Campground does not accept reservations and is fairly small, about 40 sites or so) we called just before we left Beranlillo to make sure that there were sites available - there were so we headed out. It took about 3.5 hours to get to Chaco from Bernalillo (about a third of the time was spent on the 21 miles of rough dirt road) and in that time the campground filled up. The park hosts were gracious enough to let us 'camp' in the closed group campsite overnight since several people were leaving the next morning. We got a primo-site, #20 the next morning and thus began our visit.

Gallo campground is really nice, surrounded by rocky cliffs, there are some petroglyphs (vandalized by idiots of course) and some smaller cliff dwellings you can exploe just steps from you campsite. Not a lot of privacy or trees (so could be blistery in the summer) but nice overall. No hook-ups, no potable water in the camp (you have to go about 2 miles to the visitor's center for water) but they do have flush toilets and running water in the bathrooms - no showers).

Part of the Gallo Campground

from the Overlook Trail

Our campsite #20

The weather wasn't the best on our trip - rain and thunderstorms but at least it stayed cooler. I bet this place bakes in the summer time. So in between rain showers we explored most of what Chaco has to offer. There were a couple trails and thus pueblos that we missed but we'll hit them sometime soon. One nice thing about Chaco Culture Historical Park is that you can take your dogs on the back-country trails as long as they stay leashed, and do not enter any of the ruins. I'm sure that people will abuse it and ruin it for us responsible pet owners but for now its great to be able to hike with your dogs - especially when they are hyper puppies that need to be worn out.

First stop was the visitor's center for a few trail guides and an introduction to Chaco. On Tuesdays, Fridays & Saturday's the visitor's center hosts 'star-talks' and star-gazing with their telescopes, unfortunately for us, the weather most certainly did not cooperate in the star-gazing department but we did sit through three great talks - Friday, the historic trading posts of the San Juan Basin, Saturday, the night sky at Chaco & some astronomical signs in & around the park, and Sunday was a excellent talk by one of the campground hosts who is also a Mayan Archeologists about the chocolate found in Chaco.

One of the great mysteries of Chaco is that no one really knows what it was used for. Most agree that no one lived her permanently since they haven't found the huge midden heaps or graves, etc that would indicate a large population lived here year-round. Some theories indicate that Chaco Canyon was a place for celebration and ceremonies, others a trading center or a combination of the two. The buildings in Chaco were built over a 300 year span (A.D 850 - A.D. 1150) in planned statges. Then suddenly, and with no record of why or where they abondoned these magnificent buildings.

There is evidence that there was trade with the people of Central Mexico. Whether it was direct trade (Chacoans traveling to Mexico or vice versa) or indirect, where the goods were handed up from Central Mexico we may never know but archeologists have found the skeletal remains of macaws in the some of the buildings in Chaco, shells, copper bells and more recently (Feb 2009) "chocolate" was discovered in some Chacoan pot sherds of cylindrical vases dating between A.D. 1000-1125 - some 400 years earlier than when scholars first thought chocolate came to North America!!! At the time, the only people who had chocolate were the Aztecs, about 1200 miles south!! (Click on this link to read more about it: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090202-ancient-chocolate.html )

In reciprocation, turquiose and other southwest influences have been found in some ruins of central Mexico.

Over 400 miles of pre-historic roads criss-cross the San Juan Basin, linking Chaco Canyon to its outlying neighbors. These roads were planned and engineered - most 30 ft wide, and straight, if they encountered a cliff face, the Chacoans carved steps and hand-holds into the face and continued the road on top of the mesa.

Chaco Canyon National Monument was established on March 11, 1907. On December 19, 1980, CCHM was re-designated Chaco Cultural National Historical Park and in 1987 received international recognition through the designation as a World Heritage Site.

If you get a chance to go - please do. It is a fantastic place to visit and let your imagination roam. It's a fascinating, mysterious place. And please respect that this is also a sacred site to many Native Americans.

More photos to come, I just wanted to give you a quick background on Chaco first...