Four Corners Part 8: Chaco Canyon and Winslow

DAY 8

We slept well and woke early. The dawn lit up Shiprock some 30 miles to the west.

After a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon we made a hasty retreat though with some regret that we couldn't stay longer. The cave was truly a marvelous place.





We wove through Farmington and hopped on 64 East towards Bloomfield, a nondescript little town that served as a marker for us to head south on 550. Next stop Nageezi. It truly was a stark drive as we quickly left behind most artifacts of "civilization" and drove 35 miles or so without passing more than a scattering of the occasional ranch and no towns bigger than three homes near a crossing street and no discernible names. The roads that intersected 550 were tiny at best. Most were just numbered 7100, 7150, 7255, 7257, 7685 and so on. We passed one gas station (I had filled up earlier in Farmington). Dry desert. No trees. Dusty arroyos and craggy cliffs. Hot.

I almost missed Nageezi. If I hadn't been watching my odometer I would have missed it entirely. There's no town. It's just another road intersecting 550. A road called 7900. We drove past the turn-off and had to double back. This was the entrance to Chaco Canyon.

Now I had done some research on Chaco. I confess that I had some nerves the night before as there were so many dire warnings about access to the place. Essentially all roads that lead to Chaco are dirt roads. 20 miles of dirt roads. The National Park web site has a whole page with glossy color pictures with circles and arrows on the back of each one about how difficult access can be. The first couple miles were paved. The next 18 were dirt but well maintained and we were able to easily traverse them in a half hour or so.

The road descends over a ridge and you don't realize that by the time you see the sign you've entered Chaco canyon. The visitor center was typical except for the sole experience I had where the ranger there was actually grumpy and unfriendly. An older woman who just seemed out of sorts. We didn't let that dampen our spirits and after some brief investigation drove out to meet the ranger guided tour of Pueblo Bonito that was starting in 10 minutes.

The canyon is broad and flat in its middle. The walls climb up only 200 feet or so. The park has a paved looped drive that brings you very close to the individual ruins. What makes Chaco so special, besides its incredible remoteness, is that here there are no cliff dwellings like Mesa Verde or Canyon De Chelly. Here all the structures were built from the ground up with stone bricks. Not limited by the size of a particular cave the results were often gigantic.

A view of the canyon with parking lot in the distance.





Pueblo Bonito was built about 1,100 years ago. It had over 800 rooms. Estimates of the number of inhabitants vary considerably from about 1,000 to as many as 3,000 people. For a while Bonito was "Rome" for ancient Puebloan culture. There are aerial photos that show several ancient roads leading directly in and out of Bonito extending for 50 miles or more. More info and check out the aerial photo here but here's my own version from Google Maps.

Below is a Google map of Chaco Canyon. If Google is being stupid and just showing the generic map below then click on the "Hyb" button on the upper right of the image which will show you the satellite image and the loop road. [For those of you less familiar with Google maps you can move the map by clicking and dragging your mouse to center it and clicking the plus and minus signs "+/-" on the photo to zoom in and out.]

I've marked Pueblo Bonito with a blue point on the upper left. Zoom in and look closely. It's a stunning view. Following the loop road down to the right is another blue point, the visitors center. You can see 57 leading out to the south.



View Larger Map


We pulled up to the nearby parking lot and met our nearly teen-aged guide out front. There were just a dozen or so other tourists waiting. It was a hot day indeed. Here's our guide dressed in white with his most excellent late 70's Freddie Mercury haircut. He's looking at Pueblo Bonito over his shoulder.





Freddy right?





No?

Anyway Junior Ranger was actually pretty knowledgeable but it was hot. We got impatient but held on for his lengthy lecture then walked on down to the ruins with the group. I snapped and we all baked. One of the most interesting things we heard from our lead singer was that the people who lived here were afraid that the enormous piece of towering cliff that was then teetering directly above them would one day fall and destroy part of the pueblo and likely part of them. How do we know that? Archeologists found numerous ancient prayer sticks embedded inside the walls of the rooms they built closest to what was called Threatening Rock.

The rock finally did fall in 1940 and destroyed roughly 30 rooms (see the satellite photo). What's left of the rock is many enormous boulders including this 40 foot tall fellow.





[this section edited Sept. 15, 2007]

Scott Johnson pointed me to some early photos of Chaco including this amazing shot of Threatening Rock before it fell.





While Freddy was informative we all got impatient with the heat and decided to venture ahead on our own. There are paths that guide you but in general you have nearly unfettered access to the whole place. As we walked around the exterior we saw that there were many walls still very intact and more than a few had windows that penetrated three rooms deep into the structure.





The walls themselves were remarkably well built and it's amazing that they have lasted this long.





Despite the heat clouds were approaching from the northeast promising relief. Right after I took that last shot the clouds started to blot the sun and the temperature dropped to a much more tolerable level. After we circled the back of the pueblo there was a path through a collapsed section of wall and we entered the central grounds. The place is enormous. There are jumbo kivas everywhere, some big enough for scores, perhaps hundreds of worshippers. Kathleen and Mitchell here on kiva inspection with remnants of Threatening Rock tumbled just behind the ruin.





I moved over near them and up into the kiva area looking back. Just as I was taking this the sun peeked out again.





One of the kivas was being restored by Native American workers.





After walking through the large central grounds there is a path that takes you down into some of the surviving interior rooms.





The pueblo had sections that were like apartments with many floors and a maze of interior doors and windows. In the photo below the "window" above the door is actually itself a door on the second floor. The floors were made with poles embedded in the brick walls and then surfaced with reeds, grasses, mud and plaster. You can see the remnants of these poles delineating a second and third floor here.





This section extends five chambers deep from the exterior wall.





Here's the opposite view back out from the window shot I took earlier in the day.





Sections of the buildings were very dark indeed but the architecture and masonry were stunning.





Just as we had come in, the way out was through a collapsed section of wall. I had to run to catch up with Kat and the kids and to beat the rain that was beginning to fall.





We got back in the car and made our way over to another nearby ruin. The rain started to come down. Then heavy, then deluge, then load the ark. It was thrilling actually for us rain-starved Californians who hadn't seen a drop in Carmel Valley since March. We ate PBJ's in the car and swung by the visitors center so Mitchell could get his last Junior Ranger badge of the trip. The rangers also attempted to scare us out of planned escape route, driving south out of the park on another dirt road. We wanted to see more but the rain was too much and we had a long drive ahead of us.

We braved "route" 57 south towards Seven Lakes. Fortunately the rain had passed but there were potholes, puddles and small rivers left over and the white Hummer was coated with mud when we finally landed on tarmac which was route 9 some 20 miles later. Didn't see any lakes much less seven, just dusty, dry desert. West on 9 to 371 which actually resembled a road. South on 371 towards Top of the World the road wound and then dropped dramatically down from this very high mesa and landed down in the small town of Crownpoint. We were quickly on the major highway 40 (AKA route 66) and headed west again towards Gallup.

We drove past North Guam, South Guam, past Fort Wingate, then straight through the forgettable Gallup. We passed Defiance, Manuelito, and then crossed the border to Arizona. Lots of trucks and big sky and though the rain had abated it continued to threaten in the distance. In fact as we approach Chambers we saw ahead of us the telltale swirl of an enormous storm. We were heading straight for it. As we got closer the sheer size, blackness and intensity of the thing was frightening. It looked like a living malevolence. Like a self contained tempest with lightning flashing outwards from the darkest middle. The density of blackness and swirling clouds made it look so tangible we thought we could reach out and touch it.

We did not as it skirted just north of 40 and we drove directly along side and then past it. Alas no photos but come on over to the house and we have video you won't believe.

We charged ahead past the Petrified National Forest which I expect was bailing out after this storm had just run over it. We'd have loved to have stopped but in fact it was already 7pm. Onward through Goodwater, Penzance, Manila and Hibbard we finally landed at our destination. The Holiday Inn Express on the outskirts of Winslow, the town with a corner made famous by the Eagles. It was nearly dark and even this New Yorker was rattled by the edgy quality of this isolated place. However the clerk on duty was as friendly as could be and the room was fine.

We headed into town to find dinner but the clerk had pointed out that there wasn't much left of Winslow other than the train lines and the prison. She was right. The town has fallen into deep decrepitude though there are some interesting relics of the heyday of route 66 which passes directly down the middle of town. We drove by the "corner" though by this point it was dark and frankly a little creepy with a ghost-town emptiness.

We turned that corner and two blocks down stopped by for a look at the grand La Posada Hotel, a beautiful and historic place. Next time we're staying there. However dinner looked La Pricey so we opted for the clerk's other suggestion, the Falcon, a local Mexican/American diner/bar. A little run down even for this fan of the Life Cafe, the food was cheap and greasy. I know this is mean of me but I should have guessed by the drunk who opened the door for us with a frightened "Hey there big fella" as I strode by and the waitress who needed pontoons to moor her humongous ass near enough to the table to take our order. We slopped it down and bid a hasty retreat.

It surely seemed odd to us but there it was. As described by the clerk. She claimed that each state in the US had put up its official memorial to those lost in the attacks of 9/11. Arizona's was there in Winslow. Down on a different corner, in a rough and desolate spot, near an on ramp to the highway, was a little memorial with a few original girders from the WTC.

It feels strange writing this bit from my memory as today, as I write this, is September 11th.

We slept well.


DAY 9

Holiday Inn Express has done a recent re-branding campaign and is now serving "fresh" cinnamon rolls as part of their free continental breakfast. They were, in fact, tasty. With coffee, juice and some fruit we hightailed it outta there. We drove west on 40 and after 20 miles or so skittered off the highway to Meteor Crater. Recently Kat and I had screened with the kids the wonderful movie Starman. It's finale was shot in this very crater so everyone was thrilled to see the place.

It rises up out of the desert like a volcano. We stormed through the visitors center and ambled up to the crater rim. Nice view.








Back in the 50's and 60's NASA had brought a number of different astronaut crews here to train though I doubt there was much to do here that couldn't be done elsewhere other than take in the effect of being in a bowl a mile wide.

Back inside the visitor center we ogled strange rocks, a display on meteors and various NASA paraphernalia. We hopped.

West again on 40 towards Flagstaff. Would have liked to crawled around the Lowell Observatory again but did I mention we had a plane to catch? Kathleen drove and I read to the kids chapters from Bartimaeus. The weather threatened a little and we turned south onto 17 and made good time into Phoenix. After our last rapturous visit to Sam's Cafe we decided to try their second outpost that was right off the highway. A few turns and we found it. We opted to sit outside under the large awning in the 100 degree weather. The misters were on so the seating was pretty comfortable. After some wrestling with the waitstaff over the availability of their heavenly nachos we were delivered to the promised plate.

Not as good this time (I guess we should have expected that) but the drinks were fine and it was a nice end to a more than nice trip. Off to dock the Hummer with Avis, then SkyHarbor airport. The fare on Southwest couldn't be beat and we were in our own beds that night.