Chaco Culture National Historical Park
This was our first National Park stop and it was great. The only bad news is the 13 miles of dirt road to get in- some of it was in bad shape - a grader was working on the washboard section. Once we got in, I used my Senior pass for free admission for us and half price on the campsites, so it cost $5.00 a night. The campsite had running water and toilets but no hookups of WiFi. You had to watch for rattlesnakes and we heard and saw a coyote and also elk scat.
The Chaco tribe settled the area about 1000 years ago and stayed around 400 years, no one is sure why they left, It is in a canyon and the floor is about 6000 feet above sea level, The area only has about 6″ of rain a year, it used to get more like 10″, it is hard to see how they could live there and raise crops. The well for the campsites is 3000 feet deep and the water needs an elaborate treatment system.
No one is exactly sure about why it was so built up - we toured the ruins of a pueblo with 600 rooms! It seemed to be an center for trade and religion in the whole area, There were many smaller settlements, some with 100 rooms and some with 2.
Masonary
The masonary evolved over time and some of the building was 4 and even 5 stories tall. the roofs were gone as well as the adobe that covered the stonework.
Kiva
The round rooms built down into the ground are called Kivas, and they were used for religious purposes, the ones shown could probably hold 200 people.
Many of the rooms were quite small. One small room was found to hold over 100 vases with a very cylindrical shape, not the usual for that area. When they recently did an examination of the contents, they found chocolate traces. The closest cocoa beans were known to be in Central America - and they found the same shape pots and chocolate in the Mayan culture - a huge surprise. The only explanation seems to be trade.