Chaco Canyon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!

Chaco Canyon is wild, desolate, dry and awe inspiring. One of the first questions that comes to mind when visiting the canyon is: why here? It is extremely dry and the Chacoans relied on farming for some of their food. They did have an extensive system of dikes and canals to hold and channel water for irrigation but we were here in spring and it was dry as a bone. In spite of that, this was the cultural and trading center for a much larger network of settlements in the four corners area. Theories differ but many feel THE PEOPLE left the area after years of extreme drought which I think explains abandoning such elaborate building sites.

Here us a rather unique view of a butte framed in an opening in one of the ruins walls. This butte stands by itself away from the canyon walls as if it is watching over the area.

This is a section of ruins that shows the extensive amount of work that went into building these sites. This one is figured to have been four or five levels high. The walls at the base are massive, from three to four feet thick. This indicates the Chacoans planned these structures in detail because the knew they needed the thick foundation walls if they later planned to build much higher. The really amazing thing is we don't really know for sure because they did all of this without any type of written communication. How did they figure all of this out?

Here is Marcia on an upper level overlooking the lower levels. You can see the large holes in the back wall that had large poles which had to be carried in by hand from over fifty miles away. These larger poles supported smaller ones running the opposite direction(smaller holes to right wall) which was the ceiling of the lower level and the floor for the upper level.

This is one of the larger kivas which were ceremonial meeting places.

This one is Dew emerging from the Mother Earth through an opening in the kiva.

Words cannot describe the feeling we had as we walked through these sites that are the oldest prehistoric structures in the United States(850 to 1250 AD). We left this area with a feeling of awe and respect for this advanced culture.