Chaco

 Chaco was one of our first stops on our way to choosing New Mexico as the place we wanted to live.  We ended up living in southern New Mexico, but we returned to the Canyon every four or five years.  Now, living in Albuquerque, we can get to Chaco in three hours for a day trip.  It is much more satisfying, though, to stay overnight to fully appreciate the spectacular landscape and the unobstructed night skies.

Fajada Butte is visible for many miles on the way into Chaco.  

The long wall at Chetro Ketl is one of the most impressive structures in the canyon.

The circular subterranean kivas were originally roofed with logs hand carried to the site from many miles away.

Doorways throughout the site are all under five feet in height.

Pueblo Bonito is the largest great house in Chaco with 650 rooms.

The aligned doorways in Pueblo Bonito are emphasized by the light from above thanks to missing roofs.  Less obvious is the interesting remnant on this room's wall of the smooth plaster surface which was likely typical of both internal and external walls throughout Chaco.

Each of the great houses at Chaco have different styles of masonry, depending on the number of stories and the time in which they were built over several centuries.  The sandstone walls at Pueblo Bonito feature thin, neatly laid courses.

Flash floods still occasionally course through the arroyo in the canyon's center during the summer rainy season.  Diminished rainfall in the 14th Century may have contributed to the final abandonment of the site by the Ancestral Puebloan people.