Road Trip of the Ancients – Part One
As someone who is relatively well-read, graduated from college, and constantly gets higher-than-average scores on Grammarly (please read that last one in a sarcastic tone), I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t know that Chaco Culture National Historic Park existed.
Our road trips are often inspired by books. I wrote about it recently. However, when I wrote that article, I hadn’t started reading “The Lost World of the Old Ones,” by David Roberts. That book, too, had a big impact on our recent journey to Chaco, Aztec, Salmon and Chimney Rock.
The two authors most responsible for our #roadtripoftheancients, Craig Childs and David Roberts, had their books available for purchase in every gift store we frequented on this trip, from Chaco to Chimney Rock, and I won’t lie, this made us feel well-read.
After a long drive (7.5 hours), we made it to Farmington, New Mexico, our headquarters for exploring Chaco and Aztec, although we ended up at the Salmon Ruins/Museum too. We intended to spend three nights in New Mexico before heading back to Colorado for one night in Pagosa Springs, to check out the multiple new offerings (more on that at a later date).
Farmington is located in the northwest corner of New Mexico. And, unless you’re camping, it’s the closest city to Chaco Culture National Historic Park. There are a few towns on the outskirts of Farmington that might be a few minutes closer to the park, but Farmington is the largest by far, at 46,000. It’s approximately one hour south of Durango, Colorado, and is the largest town in the region by a lot.
Chaco Canyon is tucked into the Navajo Nation with lots of Pueblos to its west. New Mexico is home to 19 Pueblo Tribes.
We arrived in Farmington around 6 p.m. Our Airbnb, the Turquoise Hideaway, was exactly as I had hoped (and the pictures had shown), which is always a relief. I am going to write an entire Road Trip of the Ancients post dedicated to where we stayed, ate, and shopped in Farmington, New Mexico.
But first, let’s visit some American Castles.
Chaco Canyon – Chaco Cultural National Historical Park
The park visitors’ center is about an hour and a half from Farmington. The last 13 miles to the park are unpaved, and we passed a handful of vehicles such as sedans and campers, crawling along at 10 miles per hour.
Thankfully, we were in Ryan’s truck. His trusty Tacoma has taken us on many road trips. It’s a gem when it comes to rough roads of any kind. This is a desolate drive, although I thoroughly enjoyed the free-range cattle and horses we’d occasionally see along the side of the road.
Our day in Chaco Canyon, a Saturday, was pleasantly warm, but not hot. May is a good time to visit because we imagine that hiking here in the heat of the summer wouldn’t be fun. Plus, the park wasn’t busy, although its remoteness makes me think it’s never “busy” in the Yellowstone National Park sense.
Chaco is a National Park, and it comes with all the standard restrictions, such as dogs are not permitted in most parts of the park or the ruins. Go here for all pet regulations. Knowing we were planning to spend hours exploring the ruins at Chaco, we boarded Fritzi. This made me unhappy, as she has been on nearly every road trip with us during her five years of life.
I’d encourage you to do some research ahead of a visit to Chaco. It is helpful to read (or listen to) the books I have written about here or previously. On our road trip from Loveland to Farmington, we listened to a few episodes of the American Southwest podcast. These are the episodes on Chaco and the Anasazi (or Ancient Pueblo). These are the people who inhabited this area from A.D. 200 to A.D. 1300. I’ll admit that we’ve been geeking out on this subject.
By the time we reached Pueblo Bonito, one of the most famous pueblo ruins in Chaco, it had a lot to live up to. Believe me, it did!
Why hadn’t I been told there were castles right here in the United States?
While they were stacking bricks to make castles in Ireland, the pueblos of Chaco Canyon and in other places around the southwest were being built. Since the Ancient Puebloans (or Anasazi as they are sometimes called) didn’t have a written language, we don’t know why these “castles” were erected, or why one day, the Ancient Puebloans moved away, leaving only the spirits of their ancestors in these enchanted, windswept places.
Ryan and I speculated on that topic as we entered the courtyards and rooms of Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo (my personal favorite), and many more.
During various excavations, an array of artifacts has been discovered. Artifacts such as macaw bones, flutes, ceramic pots, shells, and in room 33 at Pueblo Bonito, 44,000 pieces of turquoise were found with two human skeletal remains. I have named just a few things that have been found in Chaco Canyon.
Because there is no evidence of a written language, the history of the Ancient Puebloans has been left up to scholars and nonscholars alike. Many ideas have been put forth, some based firmly in scientific evidence, and others are more, shall we say, complete and total speculation. An example of such wild speculation is the belief that it’s all alien-made, as if the Ancient Pueblo were not real humans. I think that particular “theory” is ridiculous.
However, the mystery is part of what makes Chaco and other similar places so fascinating.
I have come to believe (as many have) that the people who live in the pueblos around New Mexico are likely descendants of the Ancient Puebloans who called Chaco home for several hundred years. Of course, the canyon was occupied for a much longer period than that, but the castles, as I like to call the beautiful “castle-like” ruins, were not lived in for that entire time.
I realize that a “castle” is built as a stronghold or a retreat against intrusion or evasion (Merriam-Webster), and no one is sure of why the huge structures were built in Chaco Canyon, so to call them “castles” may be a misnomer. It is, however, the closest I can come to describing the buildings in Chaco so that even the layman can understand.
These “pueblos” are amazing architecturally. Some soared five stories up and had hundreds of rooms and courtyards. Incredibly skilled people had to have done this, and while they didn’t seem to have a written language, their mathematical and celestial understanding was impressive.
I am not exploring this in depth in this post, but these ancient people were in touch with the sun, moon, and stars in ways that we still don’t understand today. They had a grasp of celestial movements and may have based much of their own lives upon it, but we can’t be completely certain.
A visit to Chaco may ultimately have led me to more questions than answers. Perhaps that’s what’s so intriguing about it and the other places we visited on this #roadtripoftheancients.
Note: My husband, Ryan Schlaefer, hiked to the top of the canyon to see Pueblo Alto and Nuevo Alto. I did not make this climb/hike as my fear of heights got the better of me. Instead, I walked the Peñasco Blanco Trail (video below), where I saw ruins and also found myself surrounded by wildflowers.
