Chaco Canyon

We heard that it was a long and ugly road into Chaco Canyon and it was indeed both. About 18 miles of dirt road. Normally not a big deal but more than 1/2 of it was serious washboard. I mean 5 mph washboard and watch for things falling off your vehicle. We passed a large assortment of hubcaps, generator fronts, cowling, mysterious black parts, ripped tires, etc strewn along the ditches. It is a county road so Park Service does not maintain or clean it up. But it was well worth the trip. It was a hot day (in the 80's) but the wind was blowing about 25mph so it didn't feel too bad. This valley was the center of a thriving culture a thousand years ago. There is a grand scale to the architecture using unique masonry techniques. They constructed massive stone buildings of multiple stories containing hundreds of rooms. The structures were often oriented to solar, lunar, and cardinal directions. Lines of sight between the great houses allowed communication. Sophisticated astronomical markers, communications features, water control devices were all used and it is believed that it was a ceremonial, administrative, and economic center of the San Juan Basin. Dozens of great houses in Chaco Canyon were connected by roads to more than 150 great houses throughout the region. They think that these were not traditional farming villages in Chaco Canyon but were impressive example of 'public architecture' that were used periodically during time of ceremony, commerce, and trading when temporary populations came to the canyon for these events. We are not allowed off trails in this park and we can understand why. The area is full of unexcavated sites and artifacts. It is a dry and seemingly harsh environment and hard to imagine this much work going into a such a well planned and high level of social community organization in this area. The place is very mysterious but considered still a sacred and important part of current Native American culture.
We had heard that there would be high wind warnings that night and it picked up about 4 pm with blowing dust and gusts up into the 50's. We parked our van with its back to the wind and made tacos inside and watched the tent campers struggle with flattened and collapsing tents and no ability to have shelter for meals. We are spoiled in our tin can even though the dust came in the screens and settled on everything.