Overcast day at Bisti Wilderness. I wanted good sun so I drove about 70 miles to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, the last 20 miles over rough, stoney, bumpy, washer board road.
Didn't feel like going on a hike so just did the loop road. Three major ruins right off the loop took me about 2.5 hours. Hungo Pavi was the smallest of the ruins. It was still as large as the biggest one I'd seen elsewhere. Chetro Ketl was much larger and Pueblo Bonita was like a large appartment complex.
05/10/08 Hiking Penasco Blanco Trail: (7.5 miles round trip)
Big time winds last night and again today. I had 25mph winds in my face until a I go to Penasco Blanco ruins and the temperature was in the lower 50's.
The trail follows a dirt service road from the top of the Chaco Canyon Loop. It passes two ruins in the first mile, Kin Klesto and Casa Chaquita. After that the trail narrows from the service road to a wide trail with some sandy spots.
At about 1.5 miles the Petroglyph Trail parralells the main trail but hugs the 150 foot walls for 1/4 miles or so. Lots of petroglyphs, most faded, along the way. Unfortunately there's more graffiti than petroglyphs.
3 miles into the hike brought me to a real nice pictoraph. What's really unusual about this one is instead of painting it on the wall they painted it under an overhang above.
.8 miles from the pictoraph to the ruins with a 200 foot gain. The ruins are pretty cool spread out over an acre or so. They sit on the very top of the canyon and the wind was really blowing up there.
These ruins have only been partially excavated and there's big piles of debris scattered about.
Passed 2 young women as I got back to the pictograohs and 2 more at the petroglyphs... and that was it for hikers on this trail on this Saturday.
05/11/08 Hiking Pueblo Alto Trail: (7.5 miles round trip)
mid-30's last night. I didn't want to get up at all this morning... but I did. Probably the coldest night I've spent this winter.
The Pueblo Alto Trail starts where the Penasco Blanco Trail does and then turns up past the Kin Kletso ruins. It immediately starts to climb up over jumpled boulders... hands and feet all the way. Then it passes behind a split rock and continues up over more rocks and boulders. It's only 100-150 feet or so but seemed a lot longer to these old, out of shape bones.
Once on top of the canyon the trail follows slick rock around one side of a canyon and back the other. At 1.0 miles there's an overlook for the Pueblo Bonita ruins. Those are the really big ones and present great photo oppurtunities. Nice view of the Pueblo del Arroyo ruins too.
The trail gains some more altitude in the remaining .6 miles to the Pueblo Alto complex. This consists of the New Alto ruins as wells as the Pueblo Alto ruins. New Alto has been excavated and partially rebuilt. Pueblo Alto has only had a small amount of exavation done.
The loop trail continues 2.5 miles but I chose to return the way I came.
Hiking Wijiji Trail: (3.0 miles round trip)
This is 1.5 mile trek on a perfectly flat gated service road to some pretty nice ruins. A side trail points to some pictoraphs. I only saw two small ones and headed back.
05/12/08 Hiking South Mesa Trail: (3.2 miles round trip to Tsin Kletsin)
Casa Rinconda ruins are a short walk from the trailhead. It features a couple of ruins and a really deep kiva with those same structures as Pueblo Bonita, Chetro Ketl and the Aztec ruins 150 miles away.
Started up a steep incline and soon ran into a dead end. I looked left and right and up and down without finding the trail. Then I looked straight ahead and saw this little bitty crack in the rock about 14 inches wide. I peeked inside and saw rough steps leading upwards.
I was a wee bit skeptical about squeezing my fat butt through that tiny opening but I gave it a try. I tried on way and then another and finally got through sideways after shoving my walking stick through first and finally getting the camera situated properly. If I weighed two more pounds I'd still be stuck there.
There's a great overview of the Casa Rinconda kiva a short ways on.
The trail climbs 400 feet in 1 mile to a large mesa. From there you can see the Tsin Kletsin ruins on a hill.
These are true ruins with little excavation and no reconstruction that I could see. Lots of building blocks that have tumbled down scattered about and sand and such piled up through the centuries.
Aside from the ruins, this is probably the most scenic of the trails with nice views of the valleys and canyons below.
I finished the hike and it was time to leave Chaco Canyon.