May 24-26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31 June 1 June 2 June 3-5 June 6 June 7-10	Wednesday, May 27 We got up about 7. The room finally cooled off enough about 4 am to pull sheet over myself... We had breakfast downstairs. We got a late start on the day. This turned into a fairly lazy day. It was time to play tourist. We have all of today and most of tomorrow to drive to Moab to meet my sister and her family. It’s about a seven hour drive... We took the route through Cuba, NM. I noticed Chaco Canyon on the map and couldn’t remember ever visiting it, so we drove over. It’s now Chaco Culture National Historic Park... After 18 miles of washboard road, we finally arrived at the Visitor’s Center. We looked around there for a while, then started on the driving tour. We took a couple of small, nice hikes along the way. Our first hike was out to Una Vida Pueblo, about half a mile from the Visitor’s Center. The three photos above show some views at the ruins of Una Vida Pueblo. The photo on the left shows part of a pueblo wall with the sky showing through it. The center photo shows what's left of a wall stretching up a hillside. The photo on the right has a taller section of wall with the valley beyond. The photo on the left shows one of the walls of Una Vida Pueblo and the southern end of the valley, including Fajada Butte, a religious site for the ancient ones. The photo on the right shows some petroglyphs located a short, steep hike above Una Vida Pueblo. Petroglyphs are "pecked" into the canyon walls, usually where the canyon varnish is thickest. Then there was a short hike at Hungo Pavi Pueblo. This was a very short hike, as most of the trail was closed for repair. The photo on the left shows one of the walls of Hungo Pavi Pueblo and the patterns the Chacoans used for this wall. Near the parking lot, we spotted this pricklypear cactus in bloom (photo to the right). On to Pueblo Bonita, the highlight of the park and the largest pueblo ever found for the early Chacoan culture. A very nice site! The three photos above show different views of Pueblo Bonita. The one on the left shows the view of the extensive ruins from the path leading from the parking lot. The center photo shows another view of this edge of the pueblo. The photo on the right was taken through one of the windows, which looks through another window into the inner section of the pueblo. The three photos above show the power of nature and the longevity of Pueblo Bonita (abandoned around 1300). The sandstone face of the cliff behind Pueblo Bonita threatened the pueblo for many centuries, finally breaking off about 100 years ago, burying the pueblo in debris. The inhabitants of this pueblo attempted to appease the gods by placing special sticks around the sandstone. They must have worked - the sandstone didn't break off until long after the pueblo had been abandoned! When the wall broke off, however, it crushed several of the walls. The photo on the left above shows the main, massive block of sandstone that sheered off the cliff. The center photo shows how sandstone fragments easily. The right photo shows some of the remaining walls through the sandstone rubble. The three photos above show three more views of Pueblo Bonita. The one on the left shows what's left of the main central plaza with several kivas visible. The center one shows a doorway and part of the outer wall. The photo on the right shows some hikers high on the cliffs that rise behind the pueblo. More information on each of these appears with the larger photo of each. The three photos above show additional detail about Pueblo Bonita. The left one shows Carl reading the guidebook at the edge of one of the smaller kivas. The center photo shows a succession of doorways leading deeper into the pueblo. The photo on the right shows some of the intricate rock work that went into these walls. The three photos above show some of the construction details visible inside Pueblo Bonita. THe one on the left shows doorways to two different levels. The center one shows the corner of a set of rooms that stacked above one another. The right photo shows the corner of one room. It's unclear if this was a corner door or a niche for storage or decorative items. Visible in all three photos are remains of the wooden timbers which formed the floor of one room and the ceiling of the room below it. The larger, more widely spaced logs (visible on the left wall of the right two photos above) were the major supports. On the other wall, narrower, more tightly spaced logs can be seen. This formed the second layer, laid at right angles to the first layer. These were, in turn, covered with brush and, possibly, a layer of plaster to form a flat floor for the upper room. The photo on the left above shows a filled in window - even the ancients were into remodeling... The photo on the right above shows me standing next to one of the doors we crawled through in the inner portion of Pueblo Bonita. The doorway is actually higher that it looks, but the floor has been covered with a thick layer of dirt to protect it from the elements. Modern tourists comfort isn't taken into consideration (g). The rain started as we were ready to head back to parking lot. There was actually Ice in the rain! We only got a little wet as we hustled back to car. We didn’t have a real lunch today. We bought some trail mix and a Nature’s Valley bar at the Visitor’s Center and that was lunch! We wound up taking the wrong road back out of the park. The Rand McNally had only shown one road into the place, so when we spotted a road heading out, we took it. We wound up several miles south of Chaco... And several miles out of our way. Finally found an intersection with road numbers on it and got heading the correct direction. We finally got to Farmington, but not via the planned route. We entered Farmington at west end of town and, guess what! There are no hotels on the west side of town... It was getting late, so what to do now? Turn around and find something in Farmington? or continue on. We thought of staying in Shiprock, but there’s absolutely nothing there at all. Perhaps the fact that it’s on the Navaho Indian Reservation has something to do with that??? So, we drove on to Cortez, CO. The Best Western there was basically sold out - the only room left was their suite and they wanted way too much money for it. So, we drove down the road to the Days Inn. Much more reasonable. We had dinner at the Main Street Pub. We both ate (and drank) too much. Their homebrews were just too good... Steak and spinach salads for both of us. The owner grows his own beef for the pub. They were good, but we could have done without the steak part. I left feeling a bit tipsy.... We bought the kids souvenir t-shirts from there, as they used Kokopelli with a mug of beer for their logo (g) - and they're black... Back to hotel to crash for the night. I made a cup of tea to wind down while I downloaded photos and added to this journal. Next...