Chaco Culture National Historical Park: Remote and Revealing

Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  First designated as Chaco Canyon National Monument in 1907, it became a National Park in 1980 and a World Heritage Site in 1987.  In 2013, the International Dark-Sky Association certified the park as an International Dark Sky Park.

Entrance to Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Chaco Canyon is remote and not easily accessible if you don’t have a four-wheel drive vehicle with high clearance.  That’s because one section of the road leading into the park is unpaved, with long stretches of gravelly washboard.  Rather than risking an accident with my compact car, my traveling companions and I arranged to visit with a guide, Tori Myers of Salmon Ruins, who is a professional archaeologist and who drove us there in an SUV.  (Salmon Ruins will be the topic of my next blog post.)

Our tour guide's SUV was the perfect vehicle for visiting the park

Paleontological evidence reveals fossils from the Late Cretaceous period of around 80 – 75 million years ago.  The heyday of human habitation in Chaco Canyon was between 850 – 1150 A.D. but archaeological evidence has revealed that people were living in the region at least a thousand years earlier.  A river ran through the canyon and the climate was more humid; today, it’s arid and the river has dried up.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park was the center of a civilization in what’s now New Mexico that included many smaller outposts as far south as the area near current-day Grants, N.M. to as far north as current-day Cortez, Colorado, and into eastern Arizona.  Evidence of trade with Mesoamerica reveals the range of Chaco Culture.  The park is known for its architecture, petroglyphs, and its astronomy programs.

View of Pueblo Bonito, one of the sites at Chaco Canyon

Our first stop after checking out the Visitor Center was Una Vida.  A short walk from the parking lot, this mostly unexcavated “Great House” shows the skill of the masons who constructed these buildings.  A “great house” isn’t actually one large building; rather, it’s a group of buildings containing many rooms, plus kivas of various sizes, surrounding a plaza.  (A kiva is a round space encircled by a stone wall that is built partly or completely below ground and used for ceremonial activities.)  Una Vida is one of the older sites at Chaco.  It was constructed between 850 – 1250 A.D.

Part of Una Vida, easily accessible from the Visitor Center parking lot

Driving by Hungo Pavi, our next stop was Chetro Ketil.  This Great House was larger than Una Vida and Tori pointed out many architectural features we wouldn’t have known about had we not been with her.  She explained how the masonry of the buildings at Chaco changed over the centuries and told us that the wooden beams we saw in the buildings were the original logs.

View approaching Chetro Ketil

Chetro Ketil was constructed up against a cliff wall, as were many of the other Chaco sites.  Tori told us that along the cliff, petroglyphs were visible so I walked along a trail to see them.  Helpfully, markers on the trail pointed straight to each collection of petroglyphs and looking through my camera’s zoom lens easily revealed them.

Petroglyphs on trail; note the spiral and humanoid images

A brochure from the Visitor Center explains how the petroglyphs were made and offers theories about what they might mean.  However, accurately determining the ages of the images is difficult.  Some of the images seem to represent people and animals while others are apparently more symbolic.

More petroglyphs; note the geometric forms and what may be a caterpillar or cacao plant

After eating a boxed lunch, we explored Pueblo Bonito, the largest and most famous site in Chaco Culture National Historical Park.  Constructed between approximately 850 – 1150 A.D., with buildings that were 4 stories high and spread over 3 acres, the complex was semi-circular in shape and situated next to a cliff wall.  In fact, the trail from Chetro Ketil with petroglyphs ends behind Pueblo Bonito.

View of Pueblo Bonito, from the front of the site

Due to its location in a canyon, Chaco is very windy.  My traveling companions needed the walking sticks they’d brought with them to help when going up and down some rocky paths and to maintain their balance when the winds gusted.  And, due to the wind, dust often swirled around us and I had to be careful to protect my camera lenses.

 
My fellow travelers were glad to take advantage of a strategically-placed bench that lets you rest and contemplate what the scene may have looked like 900 years ago when Pueblo Bonito flourished.  Many archaeologists now think that instead of being homes for a huge number of people, the buildings in Chaco Canyon primarily served ceremonial and trading purposes.  Looking at the large kiva in front of us, it was not hard to believe that.

Large kiva at Pueblo Bonito

A trail leads you through some of the rooms inside Pueblo Bonito.  I saw the exquisite masonry up close and it was amazing how well the stones fit together and how smooth the walls were.  But what really struck me were the logs.  Tori, our guide, explained how the beams were used to support the additional floors/ceilings of the buildings.  Looking at wood around 1,000 years old -- the same wood the builders of Pueblo Bonito touched -- it was humbling to ponder the longevity of Chaco and realize how much older it is than the present-day United States.

Log beams and wood lintel above upper window at Pueblo Bonito

It was now almost mid-afternoon and from Pueblo Bonito, we drove on the paved road back to the Visitor Center.  We passed the Wetherill Cemetery where Richard Wetherill, an archaeologist at the turn of the 20th century with a mixed reputation, was buried.  Further along, Tori pointed out what she called “small sites” on our right; they were small, individual structures whose purpose is unknown.

Info plaque and trail to Wetherill Cemetery

The next place we stopped to look at is called “the Staircase.”  You can clearly see steps carved on the right of the cliff.  Tori told us they lead up to a Chaco road.  The Chaco Culture built hundreds of miles of roads connecting outlying sites to the buildings in Chaco Canyon.

"The Staircase" -- the steps are visible at the top center of the cliff

The last place of interest was Fajada Butte.  Actually, that was the first noticeable point of interest we saw as we approached Chaco Canyon in the morning and Tori explained that during the summer and winter solstices, a beam of sunlight shined across a spiral petroglyph at the top of the mountain.  It was clearly and intentionally designed as some sort of astronomical marker by the Chaco people.

Fajada Butte

After around 1250 A.D., new buildings were no longer being constructed.  Over time, the people using Chaco Canyon left the area, perhaps as a result of changing climate conditions.  Their descendants, the Hopi, Pueblo, and Navajo (Dine) people all have ancestral connections to Chaco.

Looking down at Pueblo Bonito from a vantage point high above, with a view of the canyon in the distance

Tori revealed the history of Chaco Canyon to us during an informative and very enjoyable day.  Chaco Culture National Historical Park is not an easy place to get to but it’s well worth the effort and going with a guide makes it even more pleasurable and rewarding.

 
(For information about taking a tour of Chaco Canyon, please click HERE.)

Visiting the Middle Village: A Trip to Zuni Pueblo

Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico is less than an hour’s drive from Gallup. Heading south on State Route 602, I turned west onto State Route 53 and arrived in late morning.  Route 53 cuts through the center of Zuni Pueblo and as the main road of the community, it’s where you’ll find many businesses, shops, and the tribal headquarters.
 
My first stop was the Zuni Visitor Center.  There are several exhibits inside that explain Zuni history, as well as a gift shop.  It’s also where you can book a tour to learn more about Zuni culture and history and get a map of the pueblo.

Sign welcoming visitors to Zuni Pueblo

On the day of my visit, though, tours were cancelled and the museum was closed due to a cultural celebration scheduled for later that day.  However, the very helpful staffer offered to call someone to see if he was available to take me and the other visitors on a tour.

We lucked out!  Kenny Bowekaty, a Zuni archaeologist, arrived shortly and recounted the Zuni creation story for us.  He also explained how the Zuni people, who call themselves A:shiwi, came to live there, which is known as the Middle Village.  He also described their interactions with the Spanish, whom they first encountered in the 16th century.

Kenny Bowekaty, our wonderful tour guide

Then Kenny drove us on a short tour around part of the town.  We stopped first at Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.  The mission church, built by Franciscans in the early 17th century, is currently closed to tourists but the Visitor Center has an exhibit about it and Kenny also told us about its place in Zuni history.

The Spanish mission church

As we drove through the town, we passed many beehive-looking structures.  Kenny confirmed my guess that they were ovens for baking bread and other food.  Because we were with him, Kenny said it was okay to take photos; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been allowed.

Ovens, which always seemed to be in pairs

As a former teacher, I wondered if children learned the Zuni language in school.  Kenny told us that it was indeed part of the curriculum and that, in fact, students had to present a project in the Zuni language in order to graduate from high school.  Given the sad history of how the U.S. tried to eradicate Indigenous languages and cultures, it was great to hear that.

Another place that Kenny pointed out was a mesa known as Corn Mountain in English.  It’s clearly visible from the main street.  According to legend, the mesa provided refuge to the Zuni people during a flood and later, during historical times, when Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area.

Corn Mountain

After the tour, I got lunch at a Sinclair gas station.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo but it was an Indian bean taco and it was delicious.  Reasonably priced, it was huge and provided me with several more meals.

One interesting thing about the gas stations in New Mexico – they offer gas at 86 and 88 octane levels but not 87, which is standard in Arizona.  I found out later that the lower octane level is better at higher elevations in New Mexico.

Kenny told us that a majority of people in Zuni earn incomes as artisans.  There were several shops selling jewelry, fetishes, and other handicrafts up and down the main street of the town.  In one of them, I bought a pair of turquoise and shell earrings in a traditional Zuni design.

One of the many shops

I wanted to get to my hotel in Farmington, New Mexico, before dark so I left Zuni Pueblo in mid-afternoon for the 2 ½ hour drive north.  I greatly enjoyed learning about Zuni during my brief time there.  For information about visiting Zuni Pueblo, please click HERE.

Elah'kwa (thank you) for a wonderful visit!

Petrified Forest National Park: A Journey to the Triassic Period

Over 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, Petrified Forest National Park in currently arid central Arizona was equatorial and had a tropical climate.  The much wetter environment, complete with rivers and swamps, allowed fish, amphibians, and reptiles, including dinosaurs, to flourish.  It also created the conditions needed to petrify wood.
 
You can enter Petrified Forest National Park from either the north or the south.  From the south, which is what I did, take U.S. Route 180 through Holbrook to the entrance and stop at the Rainbow Forest Museum.  That’s one of the two visitor centers where you can get maps, see exhibits about the park, buy souvenirs, and use the restrooms (which are only available at the visitor centers).

Rainbow Forest Museum visitor center entrance

It’s worth taking the time to look at the museum exhibits because they provide an overview of the history of Petrified Forest National Park.  Besides, the replica dinosaurs are pretty cool!

Replica dinosaurs at Rainbow Forest Museum

Out back, behind the visitor center, is the short Giant Logs trail.  It’s a loop that’s less than half a mile long but it lets you see lots of petrified logs up close.

Petrified wood on Giant Logs trail

Dead trees become petrified when they fall into water and are covered by mud, preventing the organic matter from decaying.  But water containing minerals can still reach the wood, which becomes fossilized.  After millions of years, weathering exposes the wood to the atmosphere and erosion slices the trees into smaller logs.
 
The varied colors in the petrified wood are a result of the minerals in the water that submerged the trees.  Many logs look like they’ve been cut into sections but that’s not what happened.  One of the minerals is quartz and the theory is that pressure on the petrified trees caused them to shear apart.

Logs on Crystal Forest trail

Other minerals in the petrified wood are iron, copper, manganese, carbon, and chromium.  Different amounts of minerals create the different colors.  The Crystal Forest is a loop trail, three-quarters of a mile long, where you can see a petrified logs in a wide range of shapes and colors.

Multicolored petrified wood

But petrified wood is not the only thing to see in Petrified Forest National Park.  Another place worth stopping at is Newspaper Rock.  From the parking lot, a short walk brings you to an overlook with sightseeing telescopes.  Looking through them, or using a telephoto lens as I did, you can see petroglyphs on a couple of the large boulders below.  According to a National Park Service brochure, most petroglyphs in the park are 600 – 1,100 years old.

Petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock

Continuing on the road north, I began to see badlands.  Formed in the Late Triassic Epoch, this part of Petrified Forest National Park looks very different from the southern section.  There are no huge petrified logs here, just hills and mesas layered in green, brown, and white that are part of the geologic Chinle Formation.

Badlands

I passed the site where a rusty old car sits abandoned on Route 66, which ran through Petrified Forest National Park.  I didn’t stop for a photo, although other people did.  It reminded me of my visit to Santa Monica Pier where I saw the terminus of that highway. 

The Painted Desert lies in the northern section of Petrified Forest National Park.  There are several places to park and enjoy the view.  You really get a sense of the vastness and emptiness of the park from these overlooks.

View of Painted Desert

The Painted Desert Visitor Center at the northern entrance is larger than the southern visitor center.  You can get gas here if you need to after driving the approximately 28 miles from one end of the park to the other.  Exiting out of the park, you can easily connect to I-40.
 

I stopped to take a photo of the entrance sign as I was leaving.  Even though it looks like you’re in the middle of nowhere, there were lots of other people also visiting the park when I was there.

Sign at northern entrance to Petrified Forest National Park

President Theodore Roosevelt established Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906.  It became a national park in 1962 and encompasses 221,390 acres.  If you’re interested in geology and want to see a fascinating place unlike any other in Arizona, you’ll definitely want to visit Petrified Forest National Park.

10 Fun Facts about Santa Monica Pier

In 2023, the population of Santa Monica, California, was almost 90,000.  My relatives are among the residents and I recently visited them.  While there, I went to Santa Monica Pier for the first time.
 
Santa Monica got its English name in 1769 when Juan Crespi, a monk in a Spanish expeditionary force, named the area for that saint.  But the Indigenous inhabitants of the area, the Tongva, have lived there for thousands of years.
 
A pedestrian walkway high above the beach offers good views of the pier – at least, it does when it’s not shrouded in fog.  Staircases that cross the multi-lane highway make it easy to access the waterfront.

View of Santa Monica, with the pier in the distance

 

Below are some interesting facts about the Santa Monica Pier.

Sign welcoming people to the pier

 

1) The pier is 1,600 feet long and it opened on September 9, 1909.  It was originally built to hide a pipeline disposing of sewage into the ocean and was called the Looff Pleasure Pier.

View of Santa Monica Pier from the beach

2) Santa Monica Pier is a popular site for fishing.  According to one website I used to research these facts, a fishing license isn’t required.  At the very end of the pier, there's a platform where people can try and catch sea bass or other fish.

In the distance, fishing off the end of the pier

 

3) The cartoon character Popeye was based on a real sailor named Captain Olaf C. Olsen, who owned a fleet of fishing boats.  His efforts to prevent commercial fishing with nets in the 1920s and his charitable contributions of fish to poor families in the Depression years inspired the creation of Popeye.
 
4) An amusement park opened on June 12, 1916.  Located on the section of the pier at the water’s edge, it included a merry-go-round built in 1939, a roller coaster, and a few other attractions.  Now named Pacific Park, the Ferris wheel is visible from many places on the pier.

Entrance to the amusement park

 

5) Desi Arnaz performed at La Monica Ballroom, a huge building on the pier.  Dance marathons – Depression-era contests that gave cash prizes to couples who could dance the longest, with short breaks to rest – were held there.  Academy Award-winning movie They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which I saw many years ago, fictionalized those competitions and filmed some scenes at Santa Monica Pier.
 
6) Another iconic sign announcing the pier was built in 1940.  Located closer to the actual pier when completed, it was moved to its present spot about 75 years ago.  Yachts no longer dock at the pier but the sign was designated a historic landmark in 2012.

City-owned Santa Monica sign off of Colorado Avenie

 

7) The physical condition of the pier deteriorated over the decades and in the 1970s, the Santa Monica City Council voted to demolish it.  However, local residents passed a proposition in 1975 to preserve the pier in perpetuity.
 
8) After a 1983 hurricane and other storms, the pier was renovated over a period about several years.  A new amusement park was also constructed.

View of Santa Monica Pier and Pacific Park from the ocean end of the pier

 

9) A sign announcing the westernmost end of iconic Route 66 is a popular spot for photos.  But that isn’t the original sign marking the actual end of the road.  The real endpoint is located where Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue intersect, a few blocks inland.  It’s near the Ghiradelli Chocolate & Ice Cream Shop that opened a few months ago, where I bought some candy.

The writer standing in front of the newer Route 66 sign

 

10) In the multi-Academy Award-winning movie The Sting, when Robert Redford’s character finds Paul Newman’s character working at a carousel, that scene was filmed at the Looff Hippodrome, which was built at the same time as the pier and is now a National Historic Landmark.  Many other movies and TV shows also shot scenes at Santa Monica Pier, including The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Mod Squad, The Rockford Files, Star Trek: Voyager, 24, and 90210.

Sign when leaving Santa Monica Pier

 

Santa Monica Pier is the last pier on the West Coast that is home to an amusement park.  With vendors and artists selling souvenirs; performers entertaining tourists; restaurants to satisfy hunger cravings; an arcade, trapeze school and amusement park offering escape from the daily grind; the opportunity to go fishing; and beautiful views of the ocean and the pier from many great vantage points; when you’re in Santa Monica, a visit to the pier is not to be missed.

Joshua Tree National Park: A Short But Satisfying Visit

Desolate.  Dry. Dangerous. That was my first impression of Joshua Tree National Park, when I visited a few days ago.
 
Brown.  Beautiful.  Busy.  That was my second impression, formed after driving through the park from south to north.
 
I was on my way to Los Angeles and since the highway went right past the southern entrance, I decided to stop since I’d never been to Joshua Tree National Park before.  But first I stayed overnight in Blythe, California, to break up the journey; the next day it took about 1 ¼ hours to get to the turn off for the park.  On the way, at the exit for Chiriaco Summit, there was a sign for General George S. Patton Memorial Museum, which looked intriguing but would have to wait for some other time.
 
A couple miles off the highway was the welcome sign for Joshua Tree National Park.  The landscape was flat with low-lying bare hills in the distance and scrub brush with some cacti and bushes on both sides of the asphalt road.  It was like that as far as the eye could see.

Sign at the southern entrance to the park

But there were cars on the road and the parking lot at Cottonwood Visitor Center was almost full.  Inside the small building, it was packed with people.  A park ranger at a table near the entrance gave out maps and answered questions.  There were plenty of souvenirs: books, clothing, hats, toys for kids, magnets, postcards, patches, etc. and the line at the cash register didn’t let up while I was there.

Because I only had a few hours to spend in the park, I decided to just drive along Pinto Basin Road at the western edge of the park, from south to north, ending up at the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center near Twentynine Palms.  Part of Park Boulevard was closed but on a future visit, I’d like to see that northwestern section because that’s where you can see lots of Joshua trees.
 
From one entrance to the other was about 40 miles.  The park ranger said it’d take about an hour but I planned to stop along the way and knew it would take me longer than that.  Exiting out of the visitor center, I followed all the other cars deeper into the park.  Even on a weekday, it was busy -- although the sere landscape looked empty, the road most definitely was not.

The route I drove; map is from the National Park Service

Located where the Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert meet, the area now known as Joshua Tree National Park has been inhabited for millenia.  A placard at a turn-out explained that archaeologists Elizabeth and William Campbell excavated the area in the 1930s.  They found artifacts created by the Pinto People which turned out to be more than 9,000 years old.  More recently, Indigenous Serrano, Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, and Mohave people lived in this region and their descendants are recognized by the National Park Service as the traditional stewards of the land.
 
Designated Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936, it acquired the Oasis of Mara region in 1950; however, the overall area of the national monument was reduced in size.  In 1994, it became a national park and its size was enlarged, regaining almost the same amount of land lost in 1950 but in a different area.  Joshua Tree National Park consists of 792,623 acres today.
 
As I continued my drive, I next stopped at Turkey Flats, where a placard explained how the desolate-looking landscape formed: A mix of rock, gravel, and sand washed down from Pinto Mountain in the background.  It was very dry and barren.  I was glad I had plenty of water with me.

View of Turkey Flats, with Pinto Mountain in the background

Another placard described some of the animals that live in the park.  Besides the sidewinder rattlesnake, 25 other snake species inhabit the park.  Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any snakes, dangerous or otherwise.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see a desert tortoise or any bighorn sheep, either.
 
I briefly stopped at the Cholla Cactus Garden, roughly halfway from the I-10 entrance.  But since I can see jumping cholla just beyond my backyard at home, I didn’t spend much time there.  Besides, I still hadn’t seen any Joshua trees and that was, after all, the point of my visit.
 
So I drove on until I reached an outcrop of boulders that looked interesting.  After finding a space in the small, almost-full, parking lot, I learned from the well-worn placard that the boulders had formed when magma-created monzogranite found its way through cracks in the 1.7 billion-year-old Pinto gneiss.

If you use your imagination, this outcrop almost looks like a desert tortoise

I climbed to the top of one boulder and saw a landscape speckled with odd-shaped rocks.  This was a crowded spot and it was difficult to find views without other people in them.  I spent about 20 minutes exploring this section of the park.

View from the top of a boulder

Then I realized I wasn’t at the location of Arch Rock – it was actually further along Pinto Basin Road.  Luckily, I quickly found a parking spot but when I realized reaching Arch Rock required a mile-long walk each way, I decided to skip it because I was running out of time.
 
Driving on, I passed the road going to Skull Rock and the Discovery Trail, where the park ranger had said there were lots of Joshua trees.  But they will have to wait until I can come back another time.  Finally, after about  2 ½  hours, I started to see small stands of Joshua trees (scientific name: Yucca brevifolia) along the side of the road.
 
About 10 minutes after leaving the boulder area, I parked on the side of the road where I saw a grove of Joshua trees.  I saw one Joshua tree in front of a hill and knew it’d make a beautiful picture.  I spent about 15 minutes there, photographing that tree and the surrounding area.

A beautiful Joshua tree

The Cahuilla people called the Joshua tree humwichawa and hunuvat chiy’a and the Serrano people also called it hunuvat chiy’a.  One theory says the trees got their English name from 19th century Mormons traveling west through the area because they thought the trees’ branches resembled outstretched arms, like Joshua in the Bible, but there isn’t any real evidence to support that.

Closeup of the Joshua tree

Joshua trees are native to the Mojave Desert, grow to about 40 feet in height, and typically live to around 150 years but can live as long as 300 years.  Indigenous people used edible parts of the trees as food sources; made baskets, footwear, and tools from the fibers of leaves; and used some parts for medicinal purposes.

A different view of the Joshua tree

Finally, it was time to leave.  Although I had already shown my park pass at the Cottonwood Visitor Center, all cars had to stop at the North Entrance Station to either confirm they’d already paid the entrance fee or pay it if they hadn’t.  Holding up my pass, I didn’t have to wait in line and instead was waved through.
 
I reached Los Angeles a few hours later but am looking forward to a return visit so I can explore more of Joshua Tree National Park.  There is still plenty to see and do!