Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're looking for a pub,
3 Rivers Tap & Game Room,
113 E. Main St. (
&
505/
325-6605;
www.threeriversbrewery.com), is a big hit with locals. This brewpub/game
room has wood floors, high ceilings, and lots of laughter and brew flowing. Pool tables,
foosball, and shuffleboard fill patrons' time while they munch on popcorn and peanuts,
and, some nights, listen to live music jam. Patrons can order food from the next-door
brewpub/restaurant of the same name (see above).
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CHACO CULTURE NATIONAL PARK
A stunning setting and well-preserved ruins make the long drive to
Chaco Culture
National Historic Park,
often referred to as Chaco Canyon, worthwhile. Whether you
come from the north or south, you drive in on a dusty (and sometimes muddy) road that
adds to the authenticity and adventure of this remote New Mexico experience. When you
finally arrive, you walk through stark desert country that seems perhaps ill suited as a
center of culture. However, the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) people successfully farmed
the lowlands and built great masonry towns, which connected with other towns over a
wide-ranging network of roads crossing this desolate place.
What's most interesting here is how changes in architecture—beginning in the mid-
800s, when the Anasazi started building on a larger scale than they had previously—chart
the area's cultural progress. The Anasazi used the same masonry techniques that tribes
had used in smaller villages in the region (walls one stone thick, with generous use of
mud mortar), but they built stone villages of multiple stories with rooms several times
larger than in the previous stage of their culture. Within a century, six large pueblos were
underway. This pattern of a single large pueblo with oversize rooms, surrounded by
conventional villages, caught on throughout the region. New communities built along
these lines sprang up. Old villages built similarly large pueblos. Eventually there were
more than 75 such towns, most of them closely tied to Chaco by an extensive system of
roads. Aerial photos show hundreds of miles of roads connecting these towns with the
Chaco pueblos, one of the longest running 42 miles straight north to Salmon Ruins and
the Aztec Ruins. It is this road network that leads some scholars to believe that Chaco
was the center of a unified Anasazi society.
This progress led to Chaco becoming the economic center of the San Juan Basin by
a.d. 1000. As many as 5,000 people may have lived in some 400 settlements in and
around Chaco. As masonry techniques advanced through the years, walls rose more than
four stories in height. Some of these are still visible today.
Chaco's decline after 1
1
/
2
centuries of success coincided with a drought in the San Juan
Basin between a.d. 1130 and 1180. Scientists still argue vehemently over why the site
was abandoned and where the Chacoans went. Many believe that an influx of outsiders
may have brought new rituals to the region, causing a schism among tribal members.
Most agree, however, that the people drifted away to more hospitable places in the region
and that their descendants are today's Pueblo people.
This is an isolated area, and there are
no services
available within or close to the
park—no food, gas, auto repairs, firewood, lodging (besides the campground), or drink-
ing water (other than at the visitor center) are available. Overnight camping is permitted
year-round. If you're headed toward Santa Fe after a day at the park and looking for a
place to spend the night, one nice option is the
Cañon del Rio-A Riverside Inn,
16445
Scenic Hwy. 4, Jemez Springs, NM 87025 (
&
575/829-4377;
www.canondelrio.com).
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