We have seen so many puebloan ruins at this point, that it is starting to feel like the same thing over again. Chaco Canyon was different, however. The main difference being the size, and the other being proximity to neighbors. Chaco Canyon is way out in the boonies, down a washboard dirt road, and just when you think that there is nothing out here, slight canyon walls raise on either side of you and a unique butte marks the beginning of the park. I maybe should have done more research before going, because I thought it was one pueblo, but no it was 11 different pueblos each about 1/4-1/2 mile of each other each time you get to one you can see the next one in the distance. They must have gotten along well with their neighbors, which I guess I always imagine the Native American groups always fighting with each other, and not being able to live peaceably this close. Also they were four to five stories tall with huge rooms several times bigger than any other pueblo ruins we have seen so far. Each one was huge! As BIG as they were, anthropologists tell us that only about 2,000 people lived in Chaco Canyon. That doesn’t even seem possible, with the pueblos having about 600 rooms and there being 11 of them.
We didn’t do the hike up to Pueblo Alta, or a few others that were quite a hike, because it was quite hot and the kids were tired.
It all makes me wonder how it would be to live here in Chaco, in a pueblo with 600 rooms. In that day and time starting about 10,000 years ago.
-Sarah
Owens Endeavors 