Saturday, August 17, 2019 Chaco Canyon: Una Vida

Can you find the Visitor Center, the trail to Una Vida, and the petroglyphs on this map?

Just like at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, the dwellings at Chaco Canyon have been dated though the use of cores taken from the wood used for building. Most of the dwellings at Chaco Canyon were built between
850 - 1150.

Just like at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, pack rats are the working archeologists in the dwellings. They regularly expose pottery sherds and other artifacts buried in the dwellings.

And ravens abound at both the Cliff Dwellings and Chaco Canyon. This one was perched in the shade covering a picnic bench.

At Chaco Canyon, the ancient dwellings and petroglyphs are found spread out on the canyon bottom as well as on the mesa tops.


The remains of some of the buildings are found along the trail. 

Unlike at the Cliff Dwellings, the buildings at Chaco Canyon were created from sandstone blocks shaped with quartz tools.  The quartz tools probably came from the mountains a hundred or more miles away. The sandstone was quarried in the Canyon.


Near the top of the mesa, ancient artists chiseled these petroglyphs in the sandstone.


From the Una Vida trail the Visitor Center and its telescope dome are visible. Chaco Canyon National Monument is a dark sky park. That means at night the sky is full of stars and the Milky Way Galaxy. I attended a "Dark Sky" program when I was at Chaco Canyon and saw the planets Jupiter and Saturn through the telescope. That was really exciting!