Day 11 (4/11)
Our first hike . . .
After breakfast, I split some firewood into sizes more amenable to use in campfires and Connie stacked it into the one of storage drawers we have in the back under the bed. After making up a lunch, filling up our water bottles and another stop at the Visitors Center, we drove the 4½ miles to the trail head of a short hike we wanted to take to Pueblo Bonito Overlook.
A short walk got us to the base of the canyon wall where we began to climb straight up a rock stairway, up steps that most certainly did not comply to code in terms of their height. A little more than halfway up, we came to a slot behind a massive section that had separated from the cliff eons ago. It was narrow and steep, but it was also cooler than when we were out in the sun. Once through the slot, we were on top of the cliff edge, the lowest shelf of a mesa that rose to the north in a series of steps.
We walked for about a half an hour parallel to the edge and sometimes around little hanging valleys, taking pictures and being passed by younger, faster hikers. Eventually we got to the overlook and took pictures of Bonito from above, ate snacks and drank water. I shared some trail mix with a raven whose timid partner squawked at us from a safe distance. On our way back, we saw the two of them dancing above on the cliff face updrafts.
The walk back took less time than expected and soon we were at and then down through the slot. That was when we realized how much easier it is to climb up steep, big rocks when the ones above provide hand holds to help you balance. Where the hell were the handrails for the downward traffic? We finally made it down (obviously) and drove over to the other side of the canyon for our tour of the Great Kiva.
All of the names in and around Chaco Canyon were conferred by Europeans or local Native Americans, including the name of the canyon. Without a written language there are no records or any way to relate the language or languages spoken there in 9th through 12th centuries to any of the modern languages. 23 tribes claim ancestral connections to Chaco Canyon. They include nineteen Pueblo tribes – who share four unrelated languages and are genetically diverse – and the Hopi, the Ute, the Navajo and the Apache.
Modern archeology has been able to determine things about the construction of the Great Houses like the dates of the wood used in construction, the composition of the mortar used to join the bricks together and the plaster used to hide all that beautiful masonry inside and out (both techniques demonstrated by local Native Americans), the orientations of the buildings and village layouts based on the movements of the sun and moon and so on. They have determined that the climate during the active period of the canyon did not vary that much from today’s, that there were droughts during those times and that the Chacoan diaspora, which began around 1150, was due in part to a forty-seven year drought.
But who were the people who lived here and built these great structures? And why did they build them? Evidence shows that very few people actually lived in the big houses and that those rooms that were not inhabited were not used for storage. All of the Big Houses included one or two wide-open plazas and a number of kivas. According to our guides, the more we learn about it, the less we seem to know about the place and about the people who lived and worked here and why they chose Chaco Canyon as their center. Some suggest that it was a center of trade (things that could only have come from Central America were found there) and that it had religious significance seems obvious. Archeological evidence shows that the Chocan culture, including many other Great Houses, was spread out over 60-70,000 square mile surrounding the canyon. And, if they built the Great Houses simply to create something big and grandiose to honor their gods or themselves, well then, they were just doing what we humans have been doing throughout our history. Maybe.
Having listened to other disgruntled drivers discussing the dirt roads and having seen other vehicles driving over them, I decided that driving faster may be the key. Sure enough, right around 37 mph seemed to calm the rattling significantly. It didn’t take long to get back to Gallop and our hotel.