April 28, 2025 • 17 mins
Attn: Audio Only Please see the other post on Youtube for the Video Version, Thanks.
Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico preserves remarkable structures built by Ancestral Puebloan people over a thousand years ago, showcasing their sophisticated understanding of astronomy, engineering, and community design.
• Exploration of Una Vida, an unexcavated "great house" featuring walls and structures in the same state they were discovered almost 200 years ago
• Examination of petroglyphs depicting human figures, animals, and abstract designs throughout the park
• Visit to Hungo Pavi, a Chacoan great house occupied from 1000-1250 CE with impressive architectural details
• Tour of Chitro Kelt, featuring massive walls, small doorways, and a large kiva structure used for ceremonies
• Exploration of Pueblo Bonito, "Beautiful House," the heart of Chaco Canyon built between 830-1250 CE
• Discussion of the Weatherill cemetery and early archaeological efforts that led to antiquities protection laws
• Observation of Fajada Butte's "sun dagger" site that aligns with solstices and equinoxes
• Contemplation of why the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the site after centuries of development
If you want to see more videos like this, please like this video and give it a thumbs up. That helps me get my information out to more people on YouTube. I hope to see you on the trail!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, good morning.
This is Craig the Natural Medic.
I'm at Chaco Canyon NationalHistorical Park here in
northwestern New Mexico, up inthe San Juan Basin.
I'm looking directly across atFajada Butte, famous for the sun
dagger.
There are several large rockson top With petroglyphs.
(00:23):
You can't really see it fromhere, but perhaps there's a
better location further downthat you can see it.
Chaco Canyon is a very specialplace.
It was a civilization hub formany of the ancient Obloan
people.
Right here you're seeing somepetroglyphs that were left here,
(00:45):
just a short walk from thevisitor center.
Looks like some human figures,maybe some plants.
Looks like, up in this area,cocopelli figure.
I'm gonna take a little walk upto una vida, which is an
unexcavated great house uphillfrom the visitor center.
Okay, this is the first part ofthe Una Vida.
(01:07):
It's not a very far walk fromthe parking lot at the visitor
center.
I believe it was LieutenantJames Simpson that found this in
18.
Pretty much it's in the samestate that he found it almost
200 years ago.
You've got some walls.
You've got some walls.
You've got some structures thatare still here, but it's been
(01:34):
unexcavated.
I think pretty amazing whatthey were able to do with
primitive technology A thousandyears ago or more when this site
was built, no modernengineering tools or anything of
(01:55):
that nature.
Yet they were able to buildthese things that have stood up,
and we have buildings that webuild in modern times that don't
last as long.
One thing I definitelyemphasized here was to stay on
the trail and not go past closedsigns because of damage to the
(02:22):
resources.
So so please do that.
On this trail there are somemore petroglyphs.
You can definitely see thedetail they put into these
things.
Let me zoom in a little bit.
Up at the top you have sometype of four-legged creature
(02:42):
with ears Might have been arabbit, not sure and then right
below it you have a number offour-legged no-transcript I'm
not really sure what those areand then over to the left of
that, you have a figure with asun or a shield.
(03:06):
You have birds of differentsigns, some type of square those
are lions and then up abovethat you have a couple of
figures.
They're faint and hard to see,but they have a handprint.
I've got some very faint onesright here.
One looks like a humanoid typefigure.
There's another humanoidlooking figure, maybe right
(03:29):
there straight ahead, and thenthere's more right over here on
this rock face up there.
Let's get a little closer, veryfar up there, but let's try to
zoom in a little bit.
The one down here at the bottomlooks like there's some lizards
(03:51):
up top here.
Some more humanoid figures Verycool.
Coming back down from where thepetroglyphs are, you can see
the walls, fajada Butte, thevisitor center, in the distance.
Very cool.
One of the things that Chaco isknown for is the buildings that
were built by the native peopleare aligned with the moon and
(04:14):
the sun.
It is an international dark skypark.
There actually is a domedobservatory that was donated out
here when they do star programs.
Let me check that out sometime.
The first stop here is HungoPavi, which was a Chacoan great
house occupied 1000 to 1250.
They want you to stay on thetrails, don't get on the walls,
(04:35):
don't collect and no pets.
Let's check it out Now.
You can see the walls and thestructures here, very cool.
Interesting that this structurerecessed somewhat into the
hillside over here.
If you look at that, there'sseveral vent holes, looks like
down here at the bottom there'ssome stick structures for
(04:58):
support and there's a littlehole right there Interesting,
like a little window.
I wonder what they thoughtabout when they looked out the
window, interesting the contrastbetween the made structures and
the rocks that are here.
(05:18):
And it does say you can't climbon the rocks, but it doesn't
say you can't touch the rocks soI'm going to touch.
There's some nice views to behad through these portals.
I'd call them more like aportal.
It's fascinating.
(05:39):
This is still here after allthose years.
One thing you definitely noticeis the intricate details.
You can see the patternsthere's the rock repeating over
and over the same layers.
To an extent it does vary, butyou've got some timbers that
(06:01):
were in there for support.
That's probably what some ofthose holes actually were.
They just have rotted out overtime.
This is like the highlight ofthe park.
There's two spots you couldturn off to chitro kelt and
pueblo bonito.
Beyond pueblo bonito probablygonna try to push past that a
little bit.
I mean all the way to the end.
(06:22):
Just have to see what timepermits, depending on how the
trail is down to somepetroglyphs and some other sites
.
First we're going to go toChitro Kelt.
This one is much more extensive, it is huge.
You can see some details wherethis is broken down.
See the timbers on the topsupporting the rock structure
(06:51):
and then further on that farwall, see the small doorways.
People are not that tall inthis area.
Looks like there's a big kivastructure over here.
Let's go check it out.
Very interesting.
Oh wow, that's huge.
So you have your ventilationarea.
(07:15):
You have several fire pits inthere.
As I've said before before,kiva's were the early Native
people's church.
It's where they did manyceremonies for religious
purposes.
You can see the structure of itreally well.
This Kiva probably is as big asthe one that's reconstructed at
Aztec ruins.
(07:36):
But what gets me out here isjust the silence.
I'm gonna give you a fewseconds to hear the silence and
enjoy it.
More.
Of those holes where thetimbers were, you can see the
details.
Look at this rock.
It fascinates me how it wasstacked and there appears to be
(07:58):
some mortar, but not a lot.
So pretty amazing.
I'm sitting right in front ofthis big wall, but if you look
over here, there's some kind ofholes in the rock and they look
to be in a uniform manner.
I don't know what that is.
There's some more of them overthere.
(08:23):
Some glyphs on the rock righthere looks like some more
humanoid figures, maybe somelizards toward the upper part of
the panel can't really make outa whole lot of other ones.
Without crossing the rope, thisman has jazz hands.
Looks like there's a little lotof other ones in this without
crossing the rope.
This man has jazz hands.
Looks like there's a littlefigure of some sort right there
(08:45):
by his left foot, but I'm notreally sure what that is.
Cannot make it out.
I don't see any other glyphsclose by right here.
Hopefully he can make that out.
To me it looks there's a coupledifferent ones.
There is a caterpillar or maybea centipede or millipede and it
(09:05):
looks like some bird feet.
There's a wavy line, oh, andover here to the side, look at
this.
There are some figures rightthere, interesting.
Now we're closer to PuebloBonito, which I guess the actual
(09:26):
Spanish translation would beBeautiful House, very
interesting.
There's a ton of rock fall here.
I want to get over here where Ican show you better.
It's definitely prominent inthis location, these huge cliffs
over here.
That's interesting.
We're looking at Pueblo Bonitofrom the top view.
(09:47):
They call this the heart of thepark.
You can see from theillustrations here.
The structures increased overtime.
It took hundreds of yearsbetween the end of the 19th.
The different constructionperiods, ad 830.
(10:07):
They started in AD 830, andthey ended up finishing around
1250 AD.
Much like the great cathedralsand palaces of Europe and the
pyramids of Egypt andMesoamerica, pueblo Bonito was
planned, designed, constructedby a succession of people over
centuries to maintain the uniqueform and structure that
continues to inspire usthousands of years later.
The fact that we are able toenjoy it today is pretty amazing
(10:30):
.
I'd probably compare this to ashopping mall-sized building,
but it was built completely byyears of hard labor and
primitive construction no moderntools, no modern design
elements.
I think that's pretty amazing.
No modern design elements.
I think that's pretty amazing.
They started an accommodationfor these doorways.
They're very short.
People were very short backthen.
(10:51):
They were average 5 foot, 5foot 2, somewhere around there,
I believe, and ducking throughthat as about a 6 foot person
hard.
You can see where I camethrough.
Just a very small opening.
What I'm turning attention to isup here A while ago was that
panel with the heart of Chaco.
That's an old rock fall thatfell in the 1940s Off of this
(11:13):
face here.
It fell and demolished somestructures and created a pretty
big mess.
As you can imagine, thosetemperature extremes are pretty
wide ranging here.
It's the end of January andit's cold.
It's been down at night in thesingle digits and even a couple
(11:33):
days it was below zero, overtime with the dust of the rocks,
and then in the summertime youhave heat.
It's still pretty amazing howall this stuff is still standing
.
Of course it looked muchgrander in its other days.
It's just like multi-levelapartments built with primitive
(11:56):
technology.
It's mind-blowing.
There's a cemetery with a coupleof graves here.
With a couple of graves here itsays Richard G Weatherill died
June 22, 1910.
And then there's Richard andMarietta right next to that.
(12:20):
So maybe his wife is in therewith him.
Perhaps they were landownersprior to this being a national
park or national monumentInteresting.
Now here's another view of thecemetery.
There's actually three gravesor three markers.
Interesting spot they choseRight below these cliffs.
(12:40):
Herein lies our answer.
Richard Weatherhill he was acontroversial figure.
He started excavating here,came from Mesa Verde area in
1896, working with the AmericanMuseum of Natural History.
His excavating practices, equalto many practices of the day,
were soon criticized.
Complaints from archaeologistsand universities halted his
activities, the creation of ournation's first law protecting
(13:02):
antiquities.
He turned to ranching, operateda trading post, had a mixed
relationship with the Navajopeople In the cemetery Marietta
Weatherhill, grace Etisee CA andRamona Griffin.
Several local Navajo peopleidentified, as was the custom
Further down the trail pastPueblo Bonito.
It's called Ken Cletso and it'smore of a compact site.
(13:24):
It's not as big as PuebloBonito.
The other changes the size ofthe stones.
The ones over there, puebloBonito, which happened earlier,
were smaller stones overall withsmaller stones in between.
These are pretty muchconsistent-sized stones if you
look at the area here.
(13:44):
Pretty neat.
They definitely learned some ofthis from their northern
neighbors in the Mesa Verde area.
We're going past Pueblo Bonitaand there are petroglyphs on the
side of the trail.
Lots of interesting designs.
There's some animals, somedifferent shapes Very cool.
There's some more petroglyphsalong this trail past Pueblo
(14:09):
Bonito but they might be hard tosee.
Hopefully you can see those.
There's some on the edge of thecliff face.
Maybe in the past that waseasier to get up to.
I don't see how you get up tothat now.
Looks like a little warrior ordeity, bigh, bighorn, sheep and
a person with rabbit ears.
Okay, looks like I got somesurveyors in this.
(14:34):
Looks like they came out in1911, november 2nd 1911, us
Survey.
Wb Grigsby, washington DC.
Jp Pohl in Moriarty, New Mexico, us Survey.
Got some more glyphs here, someof those wavy lines which I
(14:58):
think indicated a direction oftravel, according to my little
book.
Got some more humanoid-typefigures here.
We have near-historicsubscriptions over the top of
some of these native ones KE,wingfield, lolo I'm not sure who
else is up there A couplemessages and then at the bottom
(15:19):
you have all these differentnative petroglyphs.
It's ironic that he was here tosurvey the park and yet he
walked on the rock.
Some more petroglyphs here, alot of humanoid figures, some
animals for good measure, andmixed in with some more modern
(15:40):
graffiti.
Interesting one right there,that big one with the cross on
the top of its head, and you gotJose Lolo up there.
Thanks, jose.
Interesting one right there,that big one with the cross on
the top of its head, and you gotJose Lolo up there.
Thanks, jose, we appreciateyour contribution.
Yeah, I was more interested inseeing the glyphs here.
You can keep going to Supernovaat 1.2 miles, penasco Blanco, 2
miles, just finished thepetroglyph trail, actually gonna
(16:03):
head back to the parking lot.
It's getting dark and you gotto be off the trail and out of
the park by five.
I know it's hard to see, butway out there in the distance
there is a herd of elk.
These elk are descendants fromindividuals that wandered in
about 2000 into the park.
About 20 individual animalshere.
(16:25):
They are cool, didn't thinkwe'd see them, and they're
pretty far out there so it'shard to make out details.
But what a special treat.
Walking the road back to thevehicle, this is Pueblo Arroyo,
which is by Pueblo Bonita.
See you there Behind me isFajada Butte.
It's a well-known and sacredsite to the native peoples.
(16:48):
It's several bands of differentlayers of rock on the very top.
The Chacoans commemorated thismovement of Sun and seasons.
The moon up there on the verytop you can maybe see it.
Let me zoom in a little bit.
There is what they call the sundagger site.
It's difficult to see from hereand I really couldn't see it
(17:09):
through the, through the scopethis, but it's supposed to be
aligned with the sun during thesummer solstice, the winter
solstice and the equinox.
It's interesting how much timethey spent.
They spent hundreds of yearshere developing this site into
the great houses, doing all thethings that they did to align it
, and then they abandoned it.
(17:30):
Why did they abandon it?
Why did they leave it?
What do you think about that?
If you have an answer to that,leave it in the comments below.
Make sure to like this video,giving it a thumbs up if you
want to see more videos likethis.
That helps me out in getting myinformation out more people on
YouTube.
I thank you for traveling alongwith me to Chaco Canyon.
(17:51):
I hope to see you on the trail.
Thanks so much.
Hey, good morning.
This is Craig the Natural Medic.
I'm at Chaco Canyon NationalHistorical Park here in
northwestern New Mexico, up inthe San Juan Basin.
I'm looking directly across atFajada Butte, famous for the sun
dagger.
There are several large rockson top With petroglyphs.
(00:23):
You can't really see it fromhere, but perhaps there's a
better location further downthat you can see it.
Chaco Canyon is a very specialplace.
It was a civilization hub formany of the ancient Obloan
people.
Right here you're seeing somepetroglyphs that were left here,
(00:45):
just a short walk from thevisitor center.
Looks like some human figures,maybe some plants.
Looks like, up in this area,cocopelli figure.
I'm gonna take a little walk upto una vida, which is an
unexcavated great house uphillfrom the visitor center.
Okay, this is the first part ofthe Una Vida.
(01:07):
It's not a very far walk fromthe parking lot at the visitor
center.
I believe it was LieutenantJames Simpson that found this in
18.
Pretty much it's in the samestate that he found it almost
200 years ago.
You've got some walls.
You've got some walls.
You've got some structures thatare still here, but it's been
(01:34):
unexcavated.
I think pretty amazing whatthey were able to do with
primitive technology A thousandyears ago or more when this site
was built, no modernengineering tools or anything of
(01:55):
that nature.
Yet they were able to buildthese things that have stood up,
and we have buildings that webuild in modern times that don't
last as long.
One thing I definitelyemphasized here was to stay on
the trail and not go past closedsigns because of damage to the
(02:22):
resources.
So so please do that.
On this trail there are somemore petroglyphs.
You can definitely see thedetail they put into these
things.
Let me zoom in a little bit.
Up at the top you have sometype of four-legged creature
(02:42):
with ears Might have been arabbit, not sure and then right
below it you have a number offour-legged no-transcript I'm
not really sure what those areand then over to the left of
that, you have a figure with asun or a shield.
(03:06):
You have birds of differentsigns, some type of square those
are lions and then up abovethat you have a couple of
figures.
They're faint and hard to see,but they have a handprint.
I've got some very faint onesright here.
One looks like a humanoid typefigure.
There's another humanoidlooking figure, maybe right
(03:29):
there straight ahead, and thenthere's more right over here on
this rock face up there.
Let's get a little closer, veryfar up there, but let's try to
zoom in a little bit.
The one down here at the bottomlooks like there's some lizards
(03:51):
up top here.
Some more humanoid figures Verycool.
Coming back down from where thepetroglyphs are, you can see
the walls, fajada Butte, thevisitor center, in the distance.
Very cool.
One of the things that Chaco isknown for is the buildings that
were built by the native peopleare aligned with the moon and
(04:14):
the sun.
It is an international dark skypark.
There actually is a domedobservatory that was donated out
here when they do star programs.
Let me check that out sometime.
The first stop here is HungoPavi, which was a Chacoan great
house occupied 1000 to 1250.
They want you to stay on thetrails, don't get on the walls,
(04:35):
don't collect and no pets.
Let's check it out Now.
You can see the walls and thestructures here, very cool.
Interesting that this structurerecessed somewhat into the
hillside over here.
If you look at that, there'sseveral vent holes, looks like
down here at the bottom there'ssome stick structures for
(04:58):
support and there's a littlehole right there Interesting,
like a little window.
I wonder what they thoughtabout when they looked out the
window, interesting the contrastbetween the made structures and
the rocks that are here.
(05:18):
And it does say you can't climbon the rocks, but it doesn't
say you can't touch the rocks soI'm going to touch.
There's some nice views to behad through these portals.
I'd call them more like aportal.
It's fascinating.
(05:39):
This is still here after allthose years.
One thing you definitely noticeis the intricate details.
You can see the patternsthere's the rock repeating over
and over the same layers.
To an extent it does vary, butyou've got some timbers that
(06:01):
were in there for support.
That's probably what some ofthose holes actually were.
They just have rotted out overtime.
This is like the highlight ofthe park.
There's two spots you couldturn off to chitro kelt and
pueblo bonito.
Beyond pueblo bonito probablygonna try to push past that a
little bit.
I mean all the way to the end.
(06:22):
Just have to see what timepermits, depending on how the
trail is down to somepetroglyphs and some other sites
.
First we're going to go toChitro Kelt.
This one is much more extensive, it is huge.
You can see some details wherethis is broken down.
See the timbers on the topsupporting the rock structure
(06:51):
and then further on that farwall, see the small doorways.
People are not that tall inthis area.
Looks like there's a big kivastructure over here.
Let's go check it out.
Very interesting.
Oh wow, that's huge.
So you have your ventilationarea.
(07:15):
You have several fire pits inthere.
As I've said before before,kiva's were the early Native
people's church.
It's where they did manyceremonies for religious
purposes.
You can see the structure of itreally well.
This Kiva probably is as big asthe one that's reconstructed at
Aztec ruins.
(07:36):
But what gets me out here isjust the silence.
I'm gonna give you a fewseconds to hear the silence and
enjoy it.
More.
Of those holes where thetimbers were, you can see the
details.
Look at this rock.
It fascinates me how it wasstacked and there appears to be
(07:58):
some mortar, but not a lot.
So pretty amazing.
I'm sitting right in front ofthis big wall, but if you look
over here, there's some kind ofholes in the rock and they look
to be in a uniform manner.
I don't know what that is.
There's some more of them overthere.
(08:23):
Some glyphs on the rock righthere looks like some more
humanoid figures, maybe somelizards toward the upper part of
the panel can't really make outa whole lot of other ones.
Without crossing the rope, thisman has jazz hands.
Looks like there's a little lotof other ones in this without
crossing the rope.
This man has jazz hands.
Looks like there's a littlefigure of some sort right there
(08:45):
by his left foot, but I'm notreally sure what that is.
Cannot make it out.
I don't see any other glyphsclose by right here.
Hopefully he can make that out.
To me it looks there's a coupledifferent ones.
There is a caterpillar or maybea centipede or millipede and it
(09:05):
looks like some bird feet.
There's a wavy line, oh, andover here to the side, look at
this.
There are some figures rightthere, interesting.
Now we're closer to PuebloBonito, which I guess the actual
(09:26):
Spanish translation would beBeautiful House, very
interesting.
There's a ton of rock fall here.
I want to get over here where Ican show you better.
It's definitely prominent inthis location, these huge cliffs
over here.
That's interesting.
We're looking at Pueblo Bonitofrom the top view.
(09:47):
They call this the heart of thepark.
You can see from theillustrations here.
The structures increased overtime.
It took hundreds of yearsbetween the end of the 19th.
The different constructionperiods, ad 830.
(10:07):
They started in AD 830, andthey ended up finishing around
1250 AD.
Much like the great cathedralsand palaces of Europe and the
pyramids of Egypt andMesoamerica, pueblo Bonito was
planned, designed, constructedby a succession of people over
centuries to maintain the uniqueform and structure that
continues to inspire usthousands of years later.
The fact that we are able toenjoy it today is pretty amazing
(10:30):
.
I'd probably compare this to ashopping mall-sized building,
but it was built completely byyears of hard labor and
primitive construction no moderntools, no modern design
elements.
I think that's pretty amazing.
No modern design elements.
I think that's pretty amazing.
They started an accommodationfor these doorways.
They're very short.
People were very short backthen.
(10:51):
They were average 5 foot, 5foot 2, somewhere around there,
I believe, and ducking throughthat as about a 6 foot person
hard.
You can see where I camethrough.
Just a very small opening.
What I'm turning attention to isup here A while ago was that
panel with the heart of Chaco.
That's an old rock fall thatfell in the 1940s Off of this
(11:13):
face here.
It fell and demolished somestructures and created a pretty
big mess.
As you can imagine, thosetemperature extremes are pretty
wide ranging here.
It's the end of January andit's cold.
It's been down at night in thesingle digits and even a couple
(11:33):
days it was below zero, overtime with the dust of the rocks,
and then in the summertime youhave heat.
It's still pretty amazing howall this stuff is still standing
.
Of course it looked muchgrander in its other days.
It's just like multi-levelapartments built with primitive
(11:56):
technology.
It's mind-blowing.
There's a cemetery with a coupleof graves here.
With a couple of graves here itsays Richard G Weatherill died
June 22, 1910.
And then there's Richard andMarietta right next to that.
(12:20):
So maybe his wife is in therewith him.
Perhaps they were landownersprior to this being a national
park or national monumentInteresting.
Now here's another view of thecemetery.
There's actually three gravesor three markers.
Interesting spot they choseRight below these cliffs.
(12:40):
Herein lies our answer.
Richard Weatherhill he was acontroversial figure.
He started excavating here,came from Mesa Verde area in
1896, working with the AmericanMuseum of Natural History.
His excavating practices, equalto many practices of the day,
were soon criticized.
Complaints from archaeologistsand universities halted his
activities, the creation of ournation's first law protecting
(13:02):
antiquities.
He turned to ranching, operateda trading post, had a mixed
relationship with the Navajopeople In the cemetery Marietta
Weatherhill, grace Etisee CA andRamona Griffin.
Several local Navajo peopleidentified, as was the custom
Further down the trail pastPueblo Bonito.
It's called Ken Cletso and it'smore of a compact site.
(13:24):
It's not as big as PuebloBonito.
The other changes the size ofthe stones.
The ones over there, puebloBonito, which happened earlier,
were smaller stones overall withsmaller stones in between.
These are pretty muchconsistent-sized stones if you
look at the area here.
(13:44):
Pretty neat.
They definitely learned some ofthis from their northern
neighbors in the Mesa Verde area.
We're going past Pueblo Bonitaand there are petroglyphs on the
side of the trail.
Lots of interesting designs.
There's some animals, somedifferent shapes Very cool.
There's some more petroglyphsalong this trail past Pueblo
(14:09):
Bonito but they might be hard tosee.
Hopefully you can see those.
There's some on the edge of thecliff face.
Maybe in the past that waseasier to get up to.
I don't see how you get up tothat now.
Looks like a little warrior ordeity, bigh, bighorn, sheep and
a person with rabbit ears.
Okay, looks like I got somesurveyors in this.
(14:34):
Looks like they came out in1911, november 2nd 1911, us
Survey.
Wb Grigsby, washington DC.
Jp Pohl in Moriarty, New Mexico, us Survey.
Got some more glyphs here, someof those wavy lines which I
(14:58):
think indicated a direction oftravel, according to my little
book.
Got some more humanoid-typefigures here.
We have near-historicsubscriptions over the top of
some of these native ones KE,wingfield, lolo I'm not sure who
else is up there A couplemessages and then at the bottom
(15:19):
you have all these differentnative petroglyphs.
It's ironic that he was here tosurvey the park and yet he
walked on the rock.
Some more petroglyphs here, alot of humanoid figures, some
animals for good measure, andmixed in with some more modern
(15:40):
graffiti.
Interesting one right there,that big one with the cross on
the top of its head, and you gotJose Lolo up there.
Thanks, jose.
Interesting one right there,that big one with the cross on
the top of its head, and you gotJose Lolo up there.
Thanks, jose, we appreciateyour contribution.
Yeah, I was more interested inseeing the glyphs here.
You can keep going to Supernovaat 1.2 miles, penasco Blanco, 2
miles, just finished thepetroglyph trail, actually gonna
(16:03):
head back to the parking lot.
It's getting dark and you gotto be off the trail and out of
the park by five.
I know it's hard to see, butway out there in the distance
there is a herd of elk.
These elk are descendants fromindividuals that wandered in
about 2000 into the park.
About 20 individual animalshere.
(16:25):
They are cool, didn't thinkwe'd see them, and they're
pretty far out there so it'shard to make out details.
But what a special treat.
Walking the road back to thevehicle, this is Pueblo Arroyo,
which is by Pueblo Bonita.
See you there Behind me isFajada Butte.
It's a well-known and sacredsite to the native peoples.
(16:48):
It's several bands of differentlayers of rock on the very top.
The Chacoans commemorated thismovement of Sun and seasons.
The moon up there on the verytop you can maybe see it.
Let me zoom in a little bit.
There is what they call the sundagger site.
It's difficult to see from hereand I really couldn't see it
(17:09):
through the, through the scopethis, but it's supposed to be
aligned with the sun during thesummer solstice, the winter
solstice and the equinox.
It's interesting how much timethey spent.
They spent hundreds of yearshere developing this site into
the great houses, doing all thethings that they did to align it
, and then they abandoned it.
(17:30):
Why did they abandon it?
Why did they leave it?
What do you think about that?
If you have an answer to that,leave it in the comments below.
Make sure to like this video,giving it a thumbs up if you
want to see more videos likethis.
That helps me out in getting myinformation out more people on
YouTube.
I thank you for traveling alongwith me to Chaco Canyon.
(17:51):
I hope to see you on the trail.
Thanks so much.
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.