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| Above, one of the great ceremonial kivas in Chaco Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is an interesting place to visit. It is only 79 miles from my home in New Mexico. The nearest town is Crownpoint, New Mexico.
Getting there is adventure itself as most of 20-mile road is unpaved and gets pretty rough from ruts left by rainstorms. I visited it two years ago. It has a visitor center and a campground (Gallo Campground) and very little else. Visitors should be fully supplied with food and water if staying over.
There is a mystery of why the Chaco people left the area. Researchers have theories and TheTravel has posted an article discussing them.
They begin with:
The Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most important and significant Native American ruins in the Southwest (there is much more than just the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde). The ancient Native American ruins at Chaco Canyon are some of the elite few to be preserved in a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the USA.
But there is a mysterious story to Chaco Canyon. At some point, the ancient inhabitants packed up and left. But why? Why would they leave? While it is impossible to go back in time and ask the departing Ancestral Pueblo survey questions, researchers do have some ideas.
To read more, go here.
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