There's a reason the road to Chaco Canyon looks like this: they don't want anyone visiting it. Driving over the ice and snow -- no problem. But what happens when it melts...?
Now it really feels like we're on our way back home. The last time we saw the continental divide, we were in Canada.
So, Chaco Canyon is the ruins of a huge ceremonial city built by Ancient Pueblo Peoples (Chacoan Indians) between 900 and 1100 A.D. (approximately, if memory serves). At the time, it was a massive hub of activity, at the center of the Chacoan world. There are literally ancient roads stretching out for miles in every direction, uncovered hundreds of years later. Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelley, they're all second-tier compared to Chaco Canyon. It was kind of like Mecca -- relatively few people lived there, but periodically tons of people would come for ceremonies and to trade.
In other words, it used to be the middle of everywhere. Now it's the middle of nowhere.
Like get-out-and-sleep-in-the-road nowhere.
And they really make you work for it. That sign on the right: "ROUGH ROAD. May be impassable. Travel at your own risk." If only we'd listened...
Here we go...
Not too bad...
Twenty miles and an hour later, we made it. Wait, I have an idea.
Nailed it.
Finally in the canyon
It all seemed so new. Hard to believe it's actually a thousand years old.
If it looks to you like that section of the wall is about to completely fall off, keep watching...
I mean, these things have been here for A THOUSAND YEARS. Try to think of anything you've made or will make that you think will last even one hundred years. It's just mud and rock. Crazy.
Gigantic ceremonial kiva -- about one hundred feet across
I assumed people would just walk to the far end of the canyon to get out, but no. They carved stone ladders out of the walls of the canyon and climbed up.
Ok, it hasn't fallen over yet. Not yet.
I mean, HUGE.
It's interesting getting to a point in your life where you are actually intrigued by the thought of someone standing exactly where you are over a millennium ago. I'm not sure I would have appreciated this the same way even five years ago.
OH NO IT FELL!
Ok, technically not while we were there. But this is what happens when you build your city at the base of a sandstone rock face.
Those are the original wood beams
If you're having trouble comprehending the scope of the ruins, this is the fifth huge complex in the canyon so far.
Time to hike to the top. Bringing Winter along (for some stupid reason...)
Wait... is this the right way?
We actually go up there...?
Like, really up there?
Guess so.
Up.
Upper.
Uppest.
Winter is...in charge. As usual.
Good lord... I get freaked out just looking at this. WHY did we bring Winter again??
The classic view of Pueblo Bonito -- the BIG one.
Tiny itty bitty people
"You guys. Seriously. Keep up."
"Come ON."
Heading up further, out of the canyon, to Pueblo Alto
The eastern-oriented ancient road starts here (from lower right)...
...and heads out past Pueblo Alto on its way deeper into New Mexico.
Rummaging for ancient tennis balls
Oh shart, it's a shird.
I mean, a shard. We REALLY wanted to take this with us. REALLY wanted to. But, we left it where Laura found it. Dammit.
Winter pawed at this puddle for two minutes trying to figure out how to make it warmer so she could drink it
Heading back down
It's hard to see, but this is a picture of Winter knocking me over on the way down (after jumping up on top of the ledge, and nearly over the cliff).
Ohhhh the mud. We should've known.
Escape attempt #1. This is the road they TELL you to take out of the canyon. It's the "good" road, they say. The "safe" road, they say. We got completely stuck. COMPLETELY stuck. Turn around, head back to the ranger station. "You'll probably have to sleep here overnight," they say. "Or wait until after dark when the mud freezes," they say. "But do NOT take the bad road," they say.
Screw that. We're taking the bad road. Escape attempt #2.
This is the other road, the "bad" road, the road we took into the canyon this morning. The "unsafe" road. Not so bad so far. WAY better than the other road.
It was bad.
For 20 miles we crawled along making little progress. We couldn't go too fast or end up off the road in two-foot-deep mud (which happened to someone just before we left, according to the rangers). So we couldn't go over 30 mph. But we also couldn't go under 30 mph or risk slowing to a stop and becoming completely immobile.
This is the end of a blind turn, just after I said "Shit, I'm going to have to just floor it around this corner and hope no one else is coming. We haven't seen anyone so far, so we should be ok." That's when a van came peeling around the corner, fishtailed until it was perpendicular to the road, our lives (and rapidly rising insurance premiums) flashed before our eyes, then the van -- literally, it was like a miracle -- swung back at the very last second to graze JUST past us. It SUCKED. Then, this shitstreak of untamed wilderness greeted us. Imagine slowing down to three miles per hour -- not exaggerating -- and the only way you can get through the mud is to rapidly spin the wheel all the way right, then all the way left, then all the way right, then all the way left, for TWENTY MINUTES. That's ONE MILE. And the whole time you're freaking out because you almost just got smashed by a F@#$%NG CHEVY ASTRO, and you're ten miles from ANYTHING, the wind is HOWLING, and if you drop down to zero mph that's it -- you're walking in twelve inches of mud. Did I mention it's New Year's Eve?
We made it. Barely.
Exactly.
This shit will not come off, I just know it.
AND WE MISSED THE MUDBOG?! DAMMIT!
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