Trip to see cool things: Chaco Culture National Historical Park

For around 20 years, my mom has wanted to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the northwest of New Mexico. I've only been wanting to go for about 10 years.

While planning our southwestern tour, I anchored our trip around a visit to Chaco.

Bill didn't know much about Chaco and was resistent to having to drive out of way to visit yet another site of Ancestral Puebloan (formerly known as the Anasazi) ruins. We'd already visited Mesa Verde, wasn't that good enough? My mom and I knew better and insisted on taking the time to see these amazing ruins.

Unlike Mesa Verde where the ruins are tucked away in cliffs, Chaco's vast building sites sit in a secluded valley far away from any modern settlement. There is no gas station, motel or trinket shop out there. That is just another thing that makes it such a wonderful place to visit.

And when I say that Chaco is vast, I mean that Chaco is huge. Unbelievably enormous. One of the biggest longhouses (and there are many in the valley) had 600 rooms. Portions of it were four stories tall.

Seriously impressive.

Those Ancestral Puebloans (that's easier to type than say) were fine craftsmen when it comes to building. Their masonry is precise and functional.

One of the best parts of visiting Chaco is that you get to walk right into the ruins, through the tiny doorways and across their plazas. Pictographs remail intact high on the canyon walls. While there are many, many ruins to visit, they are easily accessible. My mom was able to make around the ruins easily ... well, except for the tiny doorways of Pueblo Bonito, those were a challenge, but she made it through about a dozen doorways that even our 10-year-old had to crouch to get through.

As always, don't take my word for it, take a look at just a few of the pictures I took while communing with our native ancestors:

Below the pointy shadow at the top, you can see pictographs.

I love seeing pictographs: the artwork of our ancestors. It makes the idea of these ancient people more accessible to me.

Margaret has to bend over a bit to stand in one of the door ways. The holes to the right and left of the doorway originally held giant timbers which supported the upper stories. They had to walk some 40 miles to harvest timbers used in this dwellings.

Originally, the walls were covered with plaster making them flat and uniform. Now that the paster is gone, we can see the what skilled masons these people were.

Laid out is the ruins of the largest longhouse, Pueblo Bonito. Its 600 rooms planned by the builders in a systematic method.

This is a view across one of the largest kivas known. It is 65' is diameter. It could have held hundreds of people. Think for a moment about the rooms that you have access to which can hold hundreds of people. Amazing.

Click here to see more photos.

I can't wait until we get to visit Chaco again. Its size alone makes is a thing to behold. If you liked Mesa Verde, do yourself a favor and go see Chaco.