Chaco Canyon

I made "Chaco National Historical Park" (Chaco Canyon) Wednesday, 5/20. This is the real reason for this trip out west. I learned about Chaco Canyon 25 - 30 years ago via a T.V. show, probably PBS or National Geographic. I was fascinated and when I retired and put this motorcycle ride together I knew I was going to "Chaco." Don't misunderstand me, "Big Bend" was breathtaking. Sylvia and I chant "We're going to the Grand Canyon!" and that will be great also. Sylvia is flying there in early June for a week and I'll have already set up camp.

But I'm at Chaco!!!

I guess I could mention how this all started. I was planning a 3 - 4 month motorcycle trip when I retired in May 2010 but then in October 2008 I was laid off so I pushed the trip up a year. I turned 65 in May and that means Medicare and drawing Social Security a year early only costs me a small amount of my monthly benefit. May 4 (Monday) was a good time to start, it is warm enough that I won't die of exposure in my tent. Camping is the only way I could do this trip and I have backpacked a lot so camping isn't a big deal.

The plan is flexible, I left Chaco Friday and am spending the Memorial Day weekend in Farmington, New Mexico. The holiday weekend screwed up my plans (or lack of a plan) a bit. I'll leave here Tuesday, 05/26, and head to Bryce Canyon National Park for a couple days, then to Zion and the Grand Canyon to set up camp on June 2. Sylvia and I will spend a week there and then I'll hit the road again.

My next layover stops will probably be Devil's Tower in Wyoming and the Badlands in South Dakota, then on to Vermont and New Hampshire, then home to Florida via the Blue Ridge Parkway - over a period of months, of course.

So back to Chaco.

When I wrote this a few day ago it was chilly, as in 45 degrees. I was writing wearing gloves and a skull cap. I had a can of soup with crackers for supper. That is my standard, oatmeal for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly sandwich(s) for lunch and a can of soup or chili loaded with crackers for supper. I have lost most of my belly and probably some weight also but I feel great.

Chaco Canyon is an amazing place! They don't know why they settled and built here but they did, starting around the year 850. That is 600 years before Colombus "discovered" America! They can't figure out why they picked this canyon since there are many more easily inhabited ones nearby with mmuch better water supplies. We don't know where they came from or where they went. We don't know what the HUGE buildings (Great Houses) were for. In fact, we don't know much at all about the whole culture.

Here is what I do know, the the ruins will knock your socks off. I have posted a few pictures at

http://photobucket.com/chaco

but without someone in the picture to give it a sense of scale you really can't get a feel for the size.

Now the kicker -they structures are ofter oriented to solar directions and there are numerous astronomical markers where things line up for the equinoxes and soltices. Cool.

The National Park Service has a good web site at

http://www.nps.gov/chcu/

but don't settle there, that is only the official version. Do some web surfing and I bet the one day you will be sitting at a picnic table near your tent writing "Wow, I'm at Chaco!!!"