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Trip to Downtown ChacoTuesday 4/18/00How often do you start a car trip by changing a tire — a tire that's not even flat? Flat it was a week before when I switched to my spare. I'm not about to head out into the desert without a spare, so I had it fixed Monday and put it back on before leaving town. I wasn't even out of town before the wind turned hellish. At the Circle K, I was blasted by sand. Driving west out of town, into a head wind, I could barely muster 55mph up Nine Mile Hill, the Sandias obscured by dust in my rearview mirror. I had decided to go the long way to Chaco. What a bad idea. It turned out far longer than expected. I drove past the town turn for Petroglyph National Monument (in Albuquerque), past the volcanoes, past the Rio Puerco, past Laguna Pueblo and Acoma, the Sky City (and the Sky City Casino). Stopped in Grants for gas (recommended). I had planned to go to Thoreau ("through" in NM) and Crownpoint, but just past Grants at Exit 79, I saw a new brown sign for Chaco. Turning right twice, I found myself back in Grants at Exit 81. Back to Exit 79, right, then left, I paralleled I-40 for miles, on old Route 66, motels turned to junkyards. Seems 2 rights were right — I must have missed my turn north to Milan in that 2-mile stretch back to Grants. Ended up in Thoreau after all, only later. North through redrock and sandstone canyons, past the turn to Crownpoint, right onto Route 9, east towards the south road into Chaco. If that sounds like "around your elbow to get to your thumb," I told you I took the long way. After a while, I passed the road south to Milan (the other end of the road I'd missed in Grants). This seemed odd because I remembered it being east of the South Road to Chaco — how could I have passed that road? Oh, well, I drove on. Finally, a turn marked for Chaco, but this was Pueblo Pintado. Going to Chaco this way connects with the North Road. What happened to the South Road? Pigheadedly, I turned back, determined to find the once obvious South Road, even if it meant looking at a map (shudder). I finally gave in and studied the AAA Indian Country Map (excellent resource) to find I was within 1/2 mile of the South Road. Seems they've taken down the signs along Rt 9. Off of 9, a sign declares the road unsafe and recommends going via Pueblo Pintado. I just could not give in and go that way (though a wiser person would). So, as planned and in spite of the sign, I headed up the South Road. I've never seen it worse — deep ruts of solidified mud. Worse, drainages straight across the road that shake the truck violently. I finally got to the campground about 5:30pm — 4 1/2 hours after I left Albuquerque (the northern route through Cuba would have been 3 hours or so). If the route up through Milan were better marked AND one went on through Pueblo Pintado, that would make a satisfactory southern route and might take 3 1/2 hours or so. You can also reach the Pueblo Pintado outlier by going south out of Cuba on Route 9. Of course, it is extremely windy. The CG host says it will be so all-night, not just dusk as usual. A neighbor says it will be 35 degrees (Fahrenheit) tonight. And I'm planning on sleeping in the uncovered bed of my truck.
Just saw a coyote skulk by a couple of times. I sat in the back of the truck, wrapped in all my layers, waiting for the full moon to rise. I was eventually rewarded for my patience. Wednesday 4/19/00It got so very, very cold last night. I woke up repeatedly from the cold, which almost got into my bones like my one night of camping on snow in a ski area. Of course, I may also have been restless from the bright moonlight. I was very slow to rise this morning, by which time much more of the CG was empty. I went into the section where the "walk in" sites are. I've never even tried to get a spot here because it is so popular, plus I tend to sleep in my truck. I waited to make sure that the people playing loud music were leaving. With 2/3rds of the sites available, I chose #41, which is sheltered and somewhat private. I set up the tent and had a peanut butter tortilla for brunch. I decided it was too late for the long march to Peñasco Blanco. I really wanted to go there for the first time since my 40th birthday, especially because I just sold a photo of the supernova near that trail. Instead, I drove the main loop, "downtown Chaco" some call it, and took lots of photos with a camera and lenses borrowed from CKO (thanks, K!).
Behind Pueblo Bonito, I stood for several minutes watching two ravens show off their soaring abilities. Each would step off the cliff edge above me and hang in the up draft, occasionally leapfrogging each other backwards. The wind was so stiff they could keep their wings in tight next to their bodies and still soar, looking like black missiles hanging from a mobile. After Hungo Pavi and Pueblo Bonito (I skipped Chetro Ketl for no good reason), I parked near Pueblo del Arroyo. Five years ago, this road still went farther and was the North Road to the canyon. Now it ends in parking and one must walk to Kin Kletso (and the Pueblo Alto Trailhead behind it — see photos & journal) and on to Casa Chaquita at the trailhead to Peņasco Blanco — making that even more of a hike than it once was. Five years ago, the members of my Birthday Party drove to that trailhead. After everyone loaded up and headed down the trail, a young couple asked who we were. The woman observed that we shared food communally (as we stocked up for the hike), remarking that we seemed like a real close group. I wondered if she was an anthropology student. At Kin Kletso, I did "the wrong thing" and went down into Chaco Wash. I knew it would intersect a trail from Pueblo del Arroyo to South Gap (I actually missed this intersection and had to double back). Most visitors probably don't pay the Wash much attention (I'm sure the Park Service would rather you not wonder in it), but it must have been key to Anasazi life (and still to mountain lions and coyotes).
Coyote scrounged the neighboring sites, pawing under picnic tables for dropped morsels. The other walk-in sites have filled up in the last 4 hours. Be sure to get here before 4pm. I've been reading a stack of letters from old friends, most written in 1976. Much as I like email, I wonder what I'll have 25 more years from now to remind me of this time. Thursday 4/20/00I was much warmer in the tent than I had been the night before out in the open. Because I had a meeting after lunch, I quickly packed up. Which way home? North, of course. I paused at the turn towards Pueblo Pintado and the southern access to Cuba via Route 9. If only I had more time, I thought. So, I went the usual way north. And ran into construction on US 550 (previously known as NM44) — Governor Johnson's project to widen the road to four lanes all the way from Bernalillo to Farmington. It was stop and go for most of the way home. If you're driving to Chaco before the end of 2000, be ready for traffic delays or study the map to figure out that better southern route.
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I'm in #5, which I usually consider unobtainable, the only spot in the main CG with a tree. Shows how uncrowded it is tonight. Actually, my first time here 14 years ago with Jas. Mullany, Tom Mullany and Kerrie Gabay, we camped under this same tree and woke to snow on the tent — but that was mid-March.
I'm always surprised by the great view from 
After admiring 
Weeks later, I watched a PBS special on Christy Turner's cannibalism theories. A different expert talked about various Anasazi ruins being build high up, obviously (to him) for defensive purposes. Hah! Who can resist going a little higher for a longer view — just for the view itself. They may have wanted to "keep an eye on each other" but that doesn't mean they mistrusted each other. We should be careful about projecting our own culture onto theirs.
