Wonderfully Remote Chaco Canyon

Few tourists go to Chaco Canyon because the the roads to it are very rough dirt and gravel. We went about 5-10 miles per hour for 13 miles on pure washboard dirt going in praying that the trailer would hold together. We left by the other 21 mile dirt road because we were told it was  it was "much better". I had less washboard  but lots of steep hills so  creeping our way up hills in deep sand using 4 wheel drive and saying, " OMG,There's no cell phone coverage here and if we don't make this next hill we have to try to back down!!"
     The park itself is spectacular. The Chaco Indian culture thrived here from about 850 to 1200 AD. They built large community complexes having hundreds of rooms and amazing stone workmanship. The wooden beams in the picture are original! They carried full tree trunks, and stone for the structures up to 50 miles without benefit of beasts of burden or the wheel!
    The desert was beautiful. The total silence of the remote night desert was nourishing to the soul.

This is the view from our campsite at Chaco Canyon

They used several masonry styles that are very detailed and beautiful

There are multiple large and smaller round Kivas. They really don't know what they were used for but do know that they were covered with domed roofs.

The canyon walls are quite unstable and the park service measures there separated pieces of wall carefully. Yes, they do occasionally collapse.

There are petroglyphs along the walls.