dyslexia and diane do Chaco Canyon

the window you see to the left is believed to be an astrological marker:

Roger went too??? Oooooooooooooooh. How fun!!

Nice photos. That rock work is something.

Quite true especially about removing "findings" but much of Chaco is freely accessable with only certain sections restricted, as time and tourists increase with attendant idiots vandalizing places like this soon, there will be no access at all. there is alrady a problem with "tourists" doing their grafitti thing on the petroglyphs so that much of that area is now roped off.

Oh, man, I love those photos...

one of the 40ish kivas at Chaco, for scale of size check the man standing on the opposite side: These were originally all roofed and apparently used for religious meetings.

this small building was just behind our camp site, the wall next to Diane/Roger/Sally was about 10 feet on a side and had no apparent doorway entrance-possibly a storage building for grain or other food stuffs.

good grief I miss new mexico... :-(

Hi dys and Diane, Great pictures. Do you know how old those structures are? As for the restrictions of tourist sites, it's really getting bad. First it was Stonehenge. People were able to freely walk around the rocks of Stonehenge, but now it's roped off. The Mona Lisa used to be out in the open. Now, it's behind glass. The Roseta Stone used to be out in the open with a bar barrier. It's now behind glass. Used to be able to pictures at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It's now disallowed - even without flash. I know tourists bring it upon themselves, because most are really stupid. When I visited the Last Supper in Milano, they have signs all over the place; No Flash Pictures. Yet, in our small group of ten, people were using flash. Dumb, dumb, dumb and dumber; pretty soon we're gonna be restricted from Chaco.

It looks like it was hot even Sally chooses to be in the shade. I'd love to go there sometime... how many days did you stay?

we arrived on Friday about 2 pm and left on monday morning. Roger drove down from Farmington sat 10 am and left sat night about 9pm. It was in the low 90's during the day and down intothe 30's at night. the altitude is about 7,000 ft so the sun is quite intense. we drank lots of water.

Next time, I hope you invite me!

Chaco Canyon is gorgeous! Is this the one that only has one entrance, used to belong to this old farmer, who wouldn't let anyone enter until a couple of years ago? I read this story 2-3 years ago, but don't remember if the name was Chaco Canyon. Anyway, great pictures.

(And it was also nice to finally get a look at your Porsche. )

Chacoan great-house architecture is believed to have started in the AD800's; at that time, there was already monumental architecture beyond Chaco Canyon. The residents have been called "Anasazi" or "The Ancient Ones," but these names are misleading because of the old belief that these ancient cultures simply disappeared. In fact, the archeologists say that their descendants are the Puebloan Cultures of today, such as Zuni, Hopi, Acoma, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Zia, Jemez and others all of whom are Pueblo Indians.

Chaco continues to be a place of mystery. No burial site has ever been discovered and a small permanent population idicates that it wasn't a city in terms one thinks of as being highly populated and with the stresses of typical cities.

Diane, People usually built places to live where there is water nearby. Does Chaco Canyon have such access to water?

As for Julio: his owner (mommy) came by once more the next day, calling for him in a voice that was heartbreaking. She had almost given up hope. She told me that she had left their address with one of the park rangers. By then, I was sure little Julio had died. Conures--most parrots--can't stand cold weather. Plus, conures only weigh a few ounces. This pampered, well-loved little bird was never meant to live in the wild.

I offered to put Fred--in his cage--outside to see if his calls and screeches would attract Julio. Fred likes to make noise, but when we took him outside, he became quiet, looking around, loving all the different sights. Fred was non-cooperative, quietly chirping and clucking to himself, enjoying the fresh air.

The woman left, her head down, almost in despair. I felt like crying just thinking of the dangers little Julio was facing, if he still survived.

I'll be back later.

Sounds like a different one, Thomas. I was able to visit Chaco twenty years ago. The visitor center was smaller and there was no entrance fee. Oh, and Chaco has two entrances, though hardly anyone comes up from Crownpoint, New Mexico.

Thomas is easily confused so I post this to show the difference between a motor-home and a Porsche, this is our Porsche:

I see -- so motorhomes are the white ones and Porsches are the red ones. I should have noticed. (Nice car! My grandparents used to live five miles from where it was made. Gives a little boy something to dream about ..... )

yeppers, the colour (and the suspension) make the difference.

I got confused as well: since I've seen the pic of the Porsche already 'years' ago, I was quite sure, it grew in the meantime and got white by age.

Really very good pics - do you post some of the gardens, you made there over the weekend as well, dys?