RV Winter Rambling 2006-07

It Takes a Village (Pueblo?)…..


Our visit to Bandolier National Park and the Pueblo Indians cliff dwellings just west of Santa Fe had left a taste for more exploration of the Anasazi civilization. Interestingly, Anasazi – meaning ‘The old ones’ is not the native’s chosen term. They prefer to be referred to as Pueblo Indians. On our quest for more knowledge of the ancient civilizations, we ventured south from Farmington, New Mexico about fifty miles and west for another twenty one miles on a mostly dirt road to Chaco Canyon National Monument. It was well worth the rough drive. The wide canyon had obviously once been heavily populated by an advanced and skilled civilization. It’s a puzzle why they only stayed there for a couple of hundred years after building such sophisticated pueblos, several stories high. The stonework was intricate and artistic and it’s amazing that the original walls still stand a thousand years later – it speaks well of the construction. Pueblo Bonita was the largest of the villages and it was well preserved but for the huge boulders that separated away from the cliffs under which the pueblo had been built. Kivas, round subterranean rooms were used for ceremonies and social gatherings. Weaving circles used these cosy rooms and other crafts were fashioned probably in the cold winters and hot summers. All kivas were constructed in the same fashion though they varied vastly in size. Some pueblos had many kivas. There was a firepit and ventilation shaft at one end; seats circled the room; four huge posts supported the roof and in the centre was a depression which was supposed to indicate an entry to the underworld.


Pockets of ancient ruins surround the Chaco Canyon area up past Four Corners into Colorado. ‘Four Corners’ is the only location in the USA where four states intersect – New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. It is on Indian land and we were charged $3 each to enter and view the plaque depicting the conjunction – WHAT A BIG RIPOFF!


We visited a couple of smaller pueblo sites in New Mexico – in the town of Aztec and the Salmon ruins near Bloomfield and then ventured further north into Colorado to Mesa Verde National Park. A paved road curves steeply up from the highway round and round the high butte that marks the entry to the park and winds in for over 20 miles at an extremely high elevation. The views over the vast deep valleys took our breath away. But the ‘piece de resistance’ is at the end of the road. The cliff dwellings were built under massive overhanging rocks and the pueblos remain amazingly intact. The vistas of the many cliff pueblos were superb but just one of them was open for us to explore. Only pictures can really describe these marvellous dwellings. I climbed down a ladder into a dark kiva restored to its original condition and was able to imagine what life was like a thousand years ago.


In my younger years, history made no impact on me, but now I’ve lived well past half a century, I have a framework in which I can comprehend times past and I consider how our lives will impact future generations – at least I hope that global warming will be curtailed and not result in the possible dire circumstances. I would like to think that my ‘pueblo’ will be around to be discovered and explored.

posted by O'Leary @ 8:53 AM