Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Example of wall construction, Chaco Canyon

We headed up from Albuquerque about 140 miles to Chaco Culture National Historical Park. I was worried about the last 13 miles on a dirt road, but it actually wasn’t too bad – lots of dust and the occasional washboards. We were amazed at how different the construction of building is here than the typical cliff dwellings we were expecting. The best way to explain it is these were the large government or temple buildings built and occupied during a 300 year period which must have been relatively prosperous and peaceful. Roads about 30 feet wide left this area to other pueblo regions of the Southwest. People from at least 4 different language groups would come to this area for ceremonies. These buildings were enormous, 5 stories tall in places.Our first major stop was Chetro Ketl and unfortunately we didn’t find the guide book until the end, so we retraced our steps because the great houses here were like nothing we’ve ever seen. Here we also discovered our first great kiva, about 4-5 times larger than the kivas we’ve seen at other southwestern locations. This complex had about 500 rooms and 16 kivas. There are at least 4 different styles of masonry on the walls. Many of the first floor walls are two feet thick with large rocks with a mud mortar holding them together, but then faced with smaller rocks on the outside in pleasing patterns. Many look as fine as the Inca walls we’ve seen, constructed 700 years later.That night, the campfire talk was about astronomy and the Chacoan people. Almost all their building aligned north-south and many spots in the area are marked for the winter or summer solstice. The sun dagger was a rock formation with a dagger of light appearing at the summer and winter solistace on the spiral petroglyphs. Other spots were marked to watch the sun rise on the winter solstice along notches in the mesas. The talk also pointed out the dirt ramp that angles 45 degrees to the top of Fajada Butte where there is not only the sun dagger, but 40 rooms on each side of the Butte. We finished the night watching the stars. The telescopes were set up to watch Saturn and a couple galaxies.

Great Kiva of Chetro Ketl