Chaco Canyon National Monument- New Mexico

We went camping in New Mexico to check out Chaco Canyon National Monument. Here is our camping site that Debbie found for us. It was wonderful because it had a bit of shade covering because of the high rocks on either side. It was SO hot in the day- almost 100 degrees but the evening cooled down nicely to sleep in our tent.

We did several hikes in the early morning before it got hot.

There were many ruins from ancient Indians that had gathered here and built structures. Between the early 900s and 1100s Chaco was the center of far-reaching trade networks extending in all directions.  The first trail we took went to Casa Chiquita to see the Petroglyphs.

Here are some of the Petroglyphs we saw. They had nice little guide books you can buy in the bookstore for 75 cents for each trail.

The ruins weren't much to see on this trail but lots of Pictographs.

The next morning we hiked further to Penasco Blanco. We had the place to ourselves but enjoyed the cool morning. There were rock formations and some Ruins at the end.

This is what the trails looked like.

There were lots of desert plantlife.

Here is the Fajada Butte Overlook as you come to the visitor center. We were worried there would be no ice anywhere. There was some ice at the visitors center. No food to buy. Only a few snacks at the gift shop.

Our last trail we took was the best ruins of Pueblo Bonito. We purchased a guidebook that had lots to tell us about the old place. For the Hopi and Pueblo peoples of New Mexico, Pueblo Bonito is an important place where clans stopped and lived during their sacred migrations. 

The large site is a great house with multistory construction and kivas built starting 850 AD.

The guidebook is divided into numbers for each site to stop and read. Here shows where a big rock of sandstone had fallen on part of the building in 1941. 

There were four great kivas in the plaza of Pueblo Bonito. These included wall niches, fire pits, and masonry boxes built to support the roof.

There were four different door types used in Chacoan architecture. Here is a t-shaped door .
We enjoyed touring the ruins and hiking among the desert landscape. I would recommend to visit in the spring or fall rather than the Hot summer.