CHACO CULTURE - 9/30/14 . . .

Our journey today in Chaco Culture National Historical Park was an amazing one. When we woke up it was 36* outside and 41* on the interior of the Airstream. It didn't take long for most of those in tents to wake at which point we turned on our heater. Last night we had left it off. Most of those camping here are in tents and I'm sure they didn't want to hear our heater kicking on at all hours of the night. We keep enough sufficient supplies anyway to keep us comfortable in these situations without the use of the heater. Later a Ranger informed us that it had in fact dropped to 31* here. The exterior of the Airstream was frosty and our chairs we had left out were as well.

First we took off and got out bearings together at the Visitor Center. There we were able to gather information on the Chacoan people and figure out all the available sites we would be able to see today. At almost 34,000 acres this park is massive. In total Tim and I viewed three sites here in the canyon and attended three Ranger Programs today. Exhausting but oh so much fun and the wealth of information was mind boggling.

Our first site was a self guided tour of Una Vida. Una Vida is a Chacoan 'great house' built of distinctive masonry. Also at this site are petroglyphs that we had to climb a very rough and steep cliff to get to.

Hungo Pavi was next. Another Chacoan great house that was built starting in 990 AD. This house contains an enclosed kiva. These round rooms you've been seeing in my photographs are believed to be important places for gatherings and ceremonies. Modern Peublo people still use kivas today.

Chetro Ketl came next. It's one of the largest structures it began as a single story around 1010 CE and grew from there.  It became three floors in places and almost 3 acres. Estimates are 500 rooms - 225 on the ground floor and 275 rooms on the second and third floor.

Casa Rinconada was a Ranger guided event for us. This one contains the Chaco's largest excavated Great Kiva. Here the Ranger told about the significance of the kiva to ancient astronomy. Ok . . . mind boggling!!!

Then at 4pm we attended a Chip Wills presentation. Chip is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of New Mexico. He told us about some of the recent and ongoing projects here in the canyon that he has/is working on.

With barely time to eat we went back to the Airstream for a quick dinner. While there we spotted a large elk near camp. So far we've seen a pack of coyotes, many roadrunners, prairie dogs and herds of elk here.

At 7pm we headed back to the Visitors Center for an outside Evening Ranger Program in the amphitheater. First they started with a nice slide presentation and ended it with a hands on viewing. We all had a chance to spot andromeda through binoculars, spot M13 in a telescope and view the surface of the moon in their observatory.  SUPER AMAZING!!! Tim and I didn't return back to camp until well after 9pm. We got ready for bed realizing what a little spec of life we are on this massive planet, in this solar system, in this universe. My brain hurts!