The Last Campsite
The campground full sign was hanging under the entrance sign to Chaco Culture National Historic Park. As we very slowly made our way out the thirteen miles of bone-jarring dirt roads leading to the park, we tried to remain optimistic, but secretly we were both a bit crushed. Chaco is a place I’d been talking about visiting since we bypassed it in September due to threat of rain.
We knew we were taking a risk since it was mid-afternoon and Chaco’s small campground is mostly reservations. Reservations, though, are not our jam; they take all the fun and spontaneity out of traveling and we wish fewer parks took them. Aside from our time in the Grand Canyon where reservations, are mandatory and our work-related visits to Carpinteria, we have traveled with no reservations for the last ten months. We love the freedom that comes in living without reservations or itineraries. It allows us explore a place more if we love it or leave if we don’t anddetour to places we hear about along the way but never knew existed.
We were slowly circling the campground still hoping the sign was wrong (which it often is) when Ranger Mitchell pulled up beside us. We were out of luck, no sites left for RVs. Dejected, we headed off to the visitor center to inquire about BLM camping and to get a map of the park so that we could see as much as possible before braving the road out again.
As we stood at the visitor center desk chatting with the two rangers, Ranger Mitchell suddenly realized that there was one last RV campsite that had not been assigned. Someone who made a five-night reservation, left after one, so it was ours! We were overjoyed—three nights to explore this wonderful park. We felt so darn lucky!
This, though, is not a post solely about our free-wheeling travel ways but about this incredible park. The Chacoan Culture flourished from 850-1250 C.E. and it was the center of the Ancestral Puebloan world. They built their great houses entirely by hand with only stone tools, carrying the trees used for beams from mountains fifty miles away. They were remarkable astronomers, aligning their buildings to mark the solstices and equinoxes and had trade routes stretching north to Colorado and south into Mexico.
Though It was late in the day after we established camp, we were so thrilled to be there that we set off to explore Pueblo Bonito. Words are hard to find to describe the beauty and precision and engineering of these structures. As we walked about with scant few other visitors, we felt the peace in the canyon and marveled at the beauty. We couldn’t help but compare Chaco to our visit to Taos Pueblo a few days prior. They were built around the same time, so it’s something, to stand in the middle of Chaco after spending time on the Taos Pueblo—to go from a living, vibrant community to ruins and relics.
Our second and third days in Chaco allowed us to hike to areas that were further out, with our longest hike coming in at 8 miles. This hike led us to Peñasco Blanco and along the way, we saw amazing petroglyphs, which included Ancestral Puebloan drawings alongside more recent Navajo ones. The “supernova” pictograph was one reason we wanted to do this hike, and we were not disappointed. Researchers believe this pictograph marks the supernova that was recorded by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054 C.E.. It lit the night sky for over a month and surely would have been visible to the Chacoan people. Though we will never know for sure if this is what these symbols represent, I have to say that it was awfully cool to stand beneath such distinct and long-lasting markings.
While some in Chaco sites have been excavated by archeologists at various points, others remain untouched, with earthen mounds and rubble the only visible signs of a building. Pottery shards seem to be everywhere, something we haven’t seen in busier Ancestral Puebloan sites. Chaco is a special place, and I am grateful that we were able to spend three days exploring. We debated whether we should stay an extra night, but we opted to move on so that another lucky traveler could stay the last night on the abandoned reservation. Turned out that a gentleman from Quebec who had camped near us in Guadalupe Mountains NP arrived just in time!
After a few days exploring the Bisti Badlands again, we headed out of New Mexico. Though we were sad to leave this amazing state, we know we will be back again and again.
For the last few nights, we have been camped at Hovenweep National Monument, another amazing Ancestral Puebloan location, set on the Great Sage Plain near the Four Corners. Once again, we hiked to remarkable ruins, sat to take in breathtaking vistas, and marveled at the engineering genius needed to build multi-story towers atop small uneven boulders. Our last day here was crystal clear and from our lunch spot we could see over a hundred miles in every direction.
We are excited to be back in Utah, where the seeds for this journey were initially planted. And, we are glad to be able to visit places we haven’t been before as well as return to some of our favorites, like Capital Reef NP. We don’t have any reservations, and we don’t have an itinerary to guide us for these last few months, so who knows where we will be and who knows when we will get there. What we do know is that we’ll end up exactly where we are supposed to be at just the right time. That seems to be the way it works for us.
