Who can take a short drive, Make it hurt you through?

The Chaco Can can

So, the thing with Chaco canyon (and it is one of the main places I wanted to visit on this trip) is that it is pretty remote, making it very difficult to seamlessly insert into any itinerary. I have a reasonable drive to get there but am still undecided where to stay (this may become a theme, but I refuse to be concerned about it).

Not a problem as the drive there is through fairly stunning New Mexico scenery. The issue is when you get close. The last 20 miles or so is a little challenging. There is a road of sorts for the first mile or two, then gravel for a few more before a sign announces “End of County Maintenance”, and the gravel gives way to dirt road, punctuated by endearingly surprising rock outcroppings, for the last 15 miles. [It is worse on the way back as I end up taking a different route, which involves nothing but dirt road.]

You have to really want to go there. Seems I do.

To be fair, once you get to the visitor centre, there is a decent road all around the canyon to all of the major sites of interest (with the exception of those on top of the cliffs of course).

Chaco Canyon is a place sacred to the Pueblo Indians. Within the canyon there are a number of “great houses”, between them having enough rooms to house many thousands of people. It is an open question as to whether they were permanently occupied, or whether a smaller number lived there to maintain the buildings and then the population expanded at times of important rituals. Whatever the case Chaco Canyon was a site of pilgrimage and trade for a number of tribes and its influence spread far and wide via a series of roads (much like the Mayans and Incas). This is apparently a staircase which is part of one of the roads. Makes my knees ache just looking at it!

Staircase you say..?

Anyway, the largest and most important of the great houses, and the one you will have seen pictures of if you have seen anything on Chaco Canyon, is Pueblo Bonito. Always looks impressive in documentaries, but great to be able to wander around within it.

Some of the great houses are vaguely reminiscent of Welsh castles (at least in some of the stonework). Interestingly, these were built about the time that Chaco was going into decline - or at least shortly before it was abandoned. The main period of activity for Chaco was about 850-1250AD. That got me thinking about what was going on in Britain at the time - Viking attacks, Norman invasion etc.

I wander along the petroglyph trail and take too many photos to share more than a few!

But while zooming in with my phone, I spot something that is not readily visible with the naked eye…

Now, that is quite a simple pattern but, as some of you may be aware, it is also the Elder Futhark rune Dagaz. Harking back to what was happening in Britain/Europe at this time, and knowing that the Vikings got around a bit, I am now wondering whether they made it to the south western US and traded with the Chacoans. Archaeologists of the world, you can have that for nothing. Go to it!

So, another bone jarring 20 miles out of the canyon and I have to find somewhere to stay for the night. On the basis that I have really had enough of driving for today, and a vague notion that it would be nice for the road trip to intersect with Route 66, I opt to head for Gallup, one of the iconic locations on aforementioned route.

On the way, I drive along a section of the old Route 66 parallel to the I40, the road that drove the nail into the coffin of Route 66 and the iconic US road trip. I would like to say that this was me giving the finger to soulless progress, but in reality I took a wrong turn. As luck would have it, this meant I got to see the old continental divide marker.

I had crossed the continental divide in Canada some years back, but I think this is the first time I have done it in the US.

On to the hotel for the night - a Microtel. Another budget one. The rooms are quite small (the clue is in the name I guess), at least by American standards, but not that much smaller than a UK one. Perfectly acceptable though for £56! The Wifi was suspect, but that is often the case. Oddly Motel 6 had great Wifi, but that is not reason enough to revisit.

As a bonus, the Hotel is actually on Route 66. Almost as though I had planned it. Almost.