Chaco Canyon: Hidden In Plain Sight

Yes, Chaco Canyon is hidden in plain sight, hidden behind the World Heritage designation and the National Park Service tourist welcoming.

Chaco Canyon is a remote national park in northwestern New Mexico about three hours drive from the Albuquerque Airport. Camping, by reservation, is available inside the park. Outside the park are very limited tourist services. I suggest you camp either in a tent or RV. The weather is extreme in this high desert environment so you will want to avoid summer and winter. April and early October are best weather and the park is generally empty at those times.

Try not to get caught in the drama of what happened at Chaco. The archeology can be very distracting and confusing. Here is what I know about Chaco: It was the important pilgrimage site west of the Rockies a thousand years ago. Roads from all over the southwest led to Chaco.

Today, Chaco Canyon is high desert surrounded by Navajo high desert and active natural gas fields. Within this park are the remains of ceremonial structures and housing blocks. Excavations stopped a few decades ago. Occasionally, Hopi conduct ceremony.

Chaco a thousand years ago was a fertile area which supported successful farming with fields irrigated from a river which flowed through the canyon. Climate change made Chaco undesirable and its priests moved to a more fertile location north of Chaco.

Chaco’s spiritual power is generated by Fajada Butte, the dominant land formation at Chaco. The so-called North Road, which begins above Pueblo Bonito is the roadway to the gods.

Visit Chaco and commune with Fajada Butte. Then walk the North Road. Then return to Chaco again and again. I made about twenty visits to Chaco. Once I camped there in a sand storm. A few times it snowed or rained. Finally, Chaco let me in.

12/4/18