Celebrating the Equinox at Chaco Culture NHP

Entrance Chaco Culture National Historic Park
Chaco Culture NHP
How do you get a Sunny sized person through this ancient portal? With great pain and effort!

I wish I could tell you that on our visit to Chaco Culture National Historical Park we arrived in time to be one of the first 100 people in line at 6am.  On September 22nd, those early risers join a special tour to watch the sun align through the ancient doorways signaling the arrival of the autumnal equinox.  Joining that group requires us to forsake our warm, comfy beds at 3:00am and follow the stars north.  Instead we join a small expedition of Balloon Fiesta Volunteers departing for Chaco Culture at the more civilized hour of 7am.

Chaco Culture NHP
Snow regales us with tales of the ancestral Pueblo peoples that once inhabited these buildings

Not to worry though, thanks to Matt and Sherry we receive a personal tour of the park.  Guided by Snow, a volunteer friend from their stint at the LBJ Ranch, we crawl through the magnificent Pueblo Bonito.  Snow volunteers summers in Chaco Culture NHP as a tour guide.  Her perseverance in camping all summer at a site so remotely located astounds us.  For example a trip to town requires a long, tortuous trip over sometimes impassable, always pot-hole peppered and seemingly endless dirt roads.  Snow minimizes the frequency of such trips by ordering her food staples online allowing UPS (the post office doesn’t deliver here) to deliver.  We admire her passion for this site. and envy her access to the night sky view and moonlight tours here.

Chaco Culture Pictures

Entrance to Pueblo Bonito
Entrance to Pueblo Bonito
Inside Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito Great House
Largest Great House in Chaco Culture NHP, Pueblo Bonito is believed to have had approximately 800 rooms
Kiva at Pueblo Bonito
Kiva at Pueblo Bonito
Peering through an ancient window
Peering through an ancient window
Amazing structures
Amazing structures
Kiva at Casa Rinconada
Kiva at Casa Rinconada
Hwy 550 South to Albuquerque
Hwy 550 headed back to Albuquerque lined with breath-taking landscapes

About Sunny Weathers

Pilot, motorcyclist and full time RVer. Follow me as I travel all over the US in my Country Coach RV volunteering, making new friends and pursuing a constant outdoor temperature between 70F and 80F. I'll share the fun and the tribulations and any great survival tricks I learn!

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