Detoured to Chaco Canyon

Chaco Canyon is in the middle of nowhere. No services at all!! Camping is the only option for a sleep over. The bath house has flush toilets. In spite of the dry & desolate land, we saw lots of wildlife. It is well worth the visit, even if you have to bike here!! There are many things that go through your head when you are in a place like Chaco Canyon but the one thing that I kept thinking was how amazing the people before us were and what worthless lazy people we have become. Chaco is a canyon full of these "Great Houses" built and lived in between 800-1400AD. The houses where built of rock, had up to 600 rooms and four stories. But, this is not the most amazing part. The houses had support beams made from Ponderosa Pine which was found over 80 miles away. Now keep in mind these people did not have horses, cows or wheels so they had to carry the huge poles 80 miles to build their houses. These people are called Anasasi, a pueblo people and are the ancestors of many of the Native Americans in this area including the Navajos. These people did not have a written language, but heavily relied on their social structure. As far as we know, they all lived together in these "Great Houses" which had rooms, plazas and kivas. A Kiva is this huge round room that was entered from the top and had benches on all the sides with a fire pit in the middle. There are two types of Kivas - Clan kivas where family groups gathered and great kivas which could hold up to 400 people and where the entire community would gather for rituals, meetings and celebrations. These people where both hunter-gatherers and farmers. Because of their lifestyle they were also sun watchers. Many of their buildings and petroglyphs are aligned to track the movement of the sunrise and the timing of the winter and summer solstice. This is how they kept time. The sun was crucial to their existence. These people were also known for their pottery, jewelry and trading. There is evidence in the artifacts found that there was a trade network throughout the southwest and Mexico. You can hike through many of the "Great Houses" and observe the architecture and unique qualities like the corner doors, the doors that are all 5 feet high and a foot and a half above the ground, and the rooms with incredibly thick walls, no windows and the beautiful brick workthat was once covered in adobe. You can also see many of the unique petroglyphs found in the area.
BETH writes - Heavy Monsoonal rains have driven me to take an alternative route that is on all paved roads for the next two days of riding. The benefit is Mom and I will take a day off and go to Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Today's 54 mile were a small taste of what the next and last 10 days of New Mexico might hold. The road was almost perfectly straight with rolling hills. At the top of every hill you could see the next many hills on the road ahead. Thankfully, the weather was cool and cloudy because today was all about pounding the pavement. The excitement today was the many beeps and thumbs up I got, the car that past three times with a pair of jeans flying out of the sun roof, the two Navajo boys in lawn chairs in the back of a truck and the drive to Chaco Canyon. I finished riding around 3pm, loaded my BOB and bike in the car and off we went for the 33 mile drive to Chaco. What a drive it was! Between the road with ruts, the 1000ft washout that made Mom and me turn around, the 8 inches of water flowing over the road and the 10 miles of washboard, we reached Chaco around 5pm with a brown Jeep and mud covered bikes. After the thunderstorms came hammering through, we set up our tent against the beautiful rock cliffs and made dinner.
JAN writes - Due to the rains that are now coming every afternoon and the warnings that Beth shouldn't go on the dirt roads when we're in a rainy period, Beth is doing some paved road riding. This has made it easier for me and has actually speeded up her riding. She is now ahead of schedule. We left Cuba and struck out on a deserted paved road through the Navajo Indian Reservation. What absolutely desolate country! I can't imagine how anyone survives, let alone makes a living out here! Since rain was threatening, the skies were partly overcast, so the day was cooler. I would drive ahead 5 or so miles ahead and wait until she'd catch me. I've gotten a lot of novels read this way this summer. After Beth rode over 50 miles, to a spot with about 3 houses, called Pueblo Pintado, I loaded the bike and BOB in the Jeep and we we headed to Chaco Canyon National Historical Site. The sad thing is I asked the clerk at the gas station/store in Pueblo Pintado (a Navajo) and he'd never heard of the place - its 33 miles from there and on the same reservation! Anyways, despite poor road signage and a totally washed out road where we had to backtrack, we made it. The car was a muddy mess from what the rains did to the road conditions the day before. As soon as we arrived it started to rain and didn't quit for a couple of hours. We were able to set up the tent against a lovely outcropping of red sandstone and cook a late one pot meal before dark. We went to the evening astronomy program at the visitors center, but due to the sky conditions, their large telescope never came out and we were given an indoor slide presentation. Tomorrow Beth will take the day off.