Night Sky at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico

To protect the irreplaceable remnants of the ancient residents of Chaco Canyon (strucutures, artifacts, petroglyphs, pictoglyphs, etc.), night time access to most of the park is prohibited. In the summer, access on the loop road and backcountry trails is limited to 7am - 9pm (except for the early access on the summer solstice, for example). Besides the campground and the visitor center, the only other place you're officially able to be after 9pm is Fajada Butte Viewpoint. So I spent parts of my two overnights shooting the Milky Way from there.

The first two shots were taken before dawn, probably between 3:30 and 4:15, on the morning of June 22, 2025. I needed to wait until early morning because moonrise for the waning crescent moon was going to be around 3:30am, and I wanted the moonlight to illuminate the foreground for my shots. The first shot (probably taken later) got photobombed by what was probably an International Space Station flyby.

All shots are single exposures, high iso. Top shot was a Nikon 20mm f/1.8, ISO 2000, 25 seconds. Second shot was Nikon 35mm f/1.8, ISO 4000, 20 seconds. Third shot was a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds. My main night sky camera is a Nikon D780. For most untracked shots, exposures of 30 seconds or less limits the star trailing due to the earth's rotation, especially for wide-angle lenses. Processed in Lightroom for Mobile.

The first two are looking more or less west, as you can tell if you check when the Milky Way was vertical in mid-June. I assume that's Gallup and other small towns causing the orangish glow. Sunrise would have been coming from the other direction. Third one was probably southeast-ish, to capture the rising core of the Milky Way, and still fit Fajada Butte. This was probably around 11pm on the night of June 20th.

There's an actual, modern observatory at Chaco, behind the visitor center. I assumed they'd have programs every weekend, but, checking the calendar on their website, I saw no night sky programs scheduled, other than a star party, with volunteers from Albuquerque providing telescopes, the month before.

The weekend we were there would have been a good dark sky weekend for observing, but it was also the summer solstice, with numerous sun-related events going on, so I guess it's not totally surprising they didn't do any night sky stuff that weekend, but, other than the one star party, I haven't noticed any night sky events on the calendar this year (not that I check every day!). That also sort of makes sense, if only because the place is so isolated that you're not going to get a lot of "drive in for the night, then head home" drop ins, espcially not from tourists. Still, to have a spiffy observatory and not put it to use from such a dark sky location seems like a shame.

The ancient residents of Chaco certainly watched the sky, as well, as evidenced by the "supernova pictoglyph," which I noted in the previous post. What I forgot to note is, if you look on the wall below the overhang and process your shot differently, you see a large round object, with a possible tail, stretching off to the left. There's some speculation this might be a comet.

In any event, as illustrated by the shots, there's a pretty amazing night sky to be seen from Chaco Culture National Historic Park, so lots to see after dark, too. And there are occasional star parties, "manned" by volunteers from the New Mexico amateur astronomer community. I may try to volunteer for one of those some day, too.

Petroglyphs and Pictoglyphs in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico

Post two of three for Chaco Culture National Historical Park, which I visited on June 20-22, 2025. My first post is here.

Not surprisingly, in addition to the many Ancestral Puebloan structures, there are a large number of petroglyphs and pictoglyphs in the park. Also not surprisingly, because some of these would be about 1,000 years old, many of the petroglyphs (pecked) and pictoglyphs (painted) are hard to see.

The one at the top is the one I especially wanted to see. It is widely believed that the painting is of the precursor to the Crab Nebula, which is to say, a star that went supernova, back in 1054. So, yes, nearly 1,000 years old!

It's painted on the bottom of an overhang, and gets little or no direct sunlight, helping it survive all these years. You look straight up to see it.

I've been seeing pictures of it in astronomy books and magazines for as long as I can remember. Nice to finally see it in person.

People who study archeoastronomy (ancient astronomy) determined that the crescent moon and star-like figure are roughly of the proper orientation and separation to reflect what might have been seen by an ancient skywatcher, back on July 4, 1054, when that super-bright but temporary star would have appeared in the constellation Taurus, near a crescent moon, in the early AM hours of that date.

To get to the "Supernova pictoglyph," it's about a 7 1/2 mile roundtrip walk, along a mostly-level canyon bottom. However, erosion has cut down enough to require a couple of detours. Make sure you know where you're trying to get to, so you don't get off track after the detours.

The trail to the pictoglyph is the trail that heads to Penasco Blanco. It's about another 3/4 mile past the pictoglyphs. I did not continue to them, as I was a bit rushed. If I had more time, I would have. They sound interesting.

The trail starts from near Pueblo del Arroyo, and heads mostly west, along an old dirt road. After a half mile, you pass Kin Kletso. Three-quarters of a mile past that, is Casa Chiquita. About a half mile after that, is the signed "Petroglyph trail", which parallels the main trail, but runs along the cliff.

Interestingly, there were bike racks at Kin Kletso and Casa Chiquita. Apparently, the path here is still designated as Navajo Service Road 14, so Navajo can drive that segment, and bikes are permitted. Not sure how far you can ride your bike, but, if an 8 mile roundtrip hike to Penasco Blanco sounds too far, you might want to investigate with the NPS to see how far you can ride a bike, if you have a bike. At the very least, it's about half the distance.

Other petroglyph concentrations are above Una Vida (some pictured, above), between Pueblo Blanco and Hungo Pavi, and small panels near the campground and near the administrative buildings (all of which I also visited). There are several other areas with petroglyphs and ruins that I did not visit, which I would try to visit, were I to return. Even though Chaco Culture National Historical Park looks small on a map, it's still a lot to take in, even over two days. I could defintely use two more days, just to visit the other publicized trails and areas. Unfortunately, it's a long drive from the LA area, and most airport car rentals do not allow for off-pavement driving of their rental cars, so I'm not sure when that will be. I'd probably try for an equinox trip, for the sunrise and sunset alignments, as a counterpoint to the summer solstice trip we did, this time.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park, NM

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is located in New Mexico, some three hours from Albuquerque. The closest cities are Gallup, to the south, and Farmington, to the north. From either direction, it's nearly 1 1/2 to nearly 2 hours from those larger cities to Chaco, and involves 13 miles of driving on rough dirt roads from the north, or 20 miles of the same from the south. It's slightly less than that from either side to the closest gas stations. The NPS warns that either approach can become impassable when wet.

Despite the significantly longer dirt segment, if you're coming from the south or west (Las Vegas area, Flagstaff area, or points further south and west) the overall longer drive to get to the north approach means the southern route is going to be a lot quicker. So that's what we did: I-40 east, Exit 53, for Thoreau, and NM-371. (That sign, btw, is what you see when you leave the park and head back towards I-40).

I have to say I expected the signage for Chaco off of I-40 to be more prominent (as in, a big, giant, NPS-brown sign, as opposed to a smallish green sign, nearly at the actual offramp). However, my Waze did direct correctly. Still, I did stop shortly after getting off the freeway, to confirm on a map that I was heading the right way.

The NPS site suggests not trusting gps directions, but I suspect that's from earlier iterations, and the big companies have since figured out based on user feedback how to actually get there without driving their customers into empty desert.

From NM-371, it's about 27.5 miles north, to NM-57/Navajo Service Route 9, then another 13 miles or so, to Navajo Service Route 14, which is also NM-57. That's where the pavement ends. About twenty miles later, somewhat after passing the stone NPS sign for Chaco Culture National Historical Park (which nicely frames Fajada Butte), you're back on pavement.

The drive on dirt was long, slow, but, overall, not as bad as feared. I still probably averaged less than 20mph, but the washboarding was only intermittent. I did take care approaching cattle grates, as I had read that occasionally there are big dropoffs in the transitions. Also, there were a few hills with exposed rocks and limited visibility where I slowed and drove especially carefully. But, overall, no regrets about driving a Camry from the south.

Very little traffic either way on the dirt segment. I think I saw fewer than a half-dozen cars, each way. No real sandy areas on the drive, but there were a few areas of dried mud that would have been impassible when they were still mud. In my trunk, I had a few tire mats and a shovel, but they weren't needed.

I should note that my driving experience is specific to June 20, 2025, when we drove in, and June 22, 2025, when we drove out. Based on the dried, but not yet broken down mud ruts on the road, it seems likely that driving might have been problematic a few weeks earlier. Also, a few weeks after our trip, from July 3 through July 8, 2025, Chaco's NPS webpage noted that travel to Chaco via NM-57 (the south) "was not recommended at this time." So, obviously, in driving to Chaco, figuratively, at least, ymmv. It is sugggested that you call Chaco's visitor center prior to your visit, to confirm road conditions.

After stopping at the visitor center ($25/vehicle entrance fee, or a federal recreation pass, which I had), we headed first to see the "star" of Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito. BTW, the names of the structures in Chaco are mostly either descriptive Spanish or corrupted Navajo. In this case, Pueblo Bonito means something like pretty town. It's the largest of the structures remaining. Once up to four stories high and with some 700 rooms, it provides a good idea of the sprawl of these "great houses." In this case, the city is laid out along the cardinal directions, so equinox sunrise and sunset is along the long, straight, southern wall of Pueblo Bonito.

A view of Pueblo Bonito from above (from the north mesa) is a few shots below, while the previous shots were of and within Pueblo Bonito. I think the shot adjacent to this text was Chetro Ketl (slughtly east of Pueblo Bonito), while the next two are from Pueblo del Arroyo. Those are just three of the six or so named houses and "great houses" (pueblos) near or adjacent to the paved road. Roughly five other named sites are accessible via "backcountry" trails from Chaco, with lengths of 3 to 8 miles roundtrip each. Several outlying sites are even further from the pavement than that.

Some of the excavated ruins have had more modern "stabilization" work done, including the roof drain and drop pipe here, and the support sturcture a few shots up. The NPS interpreters said that, under current-day policy, these structures would likely have been left buried or reburied for stabilization, but the add-ons were done quite some time ago, and you'll note them as you walk the ruins quite easily.

As previously noted, there are about a half-dozen major ruins adjacent to or within 1/2 mile of the pavement. Just seeing those would make a pretty full day, because walking to, through, and around each site means about 3/4 of a mile, each, so it would be 3-4 miles of walking, plus 18 miles or so of driving. Spend some time in the visitor center or just standing still for a while, and there's your day, even before adding even one of the "backcountry" trails. So, while we initially had booked one night of camping, we later added a second. I was very glad we did.

The next morning was the summer solstice, which coincided with our trip, so we figured we might as well do the solstice experience. That meant lining up a little after 5am for early entrance to Casa Rinconada (normally, the gates open at 7am, and close after dark, vatying some during the course of the year). Access to this event (summer solstice sunrise at Casa Rinconada) was limited to the first 100 people. I think, as it happened, there were fewer than that lined up, so everyone who wanted to got to experience the solstice sunrise there.

Casa Rinconada is smaller than a "great" house, but has a very large excavated kiva. Originally, the kiva would have been covered, but windows and doors were present. It's possible (though not certain) that, shortly after sunrise on the summer solstice, sunlight would have shone through a window and entered a door on the opposite side. Not quite Indiana Jones, but a possible non-chance alignment.

At any rate, we made the line, convoyed in, then parked, where instructed. We were in time for the sunrise, then, later, got to watch a ray of sun shine through a window, on to the opposite wall, then eventually make its way down to another door. Again, it's possible this was by design, and something the ancient inhabitants of Chaco would have experienced, over a thousand years ago.

It's also possible that, when the kiva was reconstructed by early antropologists, they placed the windows differently, and the alignment is just a crazy accident.

Regardless of this particular alognment, there seems little doubt that many of the Chaco structures (and, indeed, the interaction of many different Chaco structures) were built with attention to the heavens. Alignments for equinox and solstice, and, more obscurely, for major and minor lunar standstills, are found all around Chaco, especially in the layout of the pueblos and casas.

Beyond the big structures, one of the more interesting previous structures involved a "sun dagger," an alignment or rocks and a spiral petroglyph atop Fajada Butte. But visitation caused those rocks to shift, and access to the top of Fajada Butte is no longer allowed, and the sun dagger no longer hits its marks for solstices and equinoxes.

I'll probably have a follow up post or two. But I'll wrap this post up with this: Chaco Culture National Historical Park is way out there. There is no food or drink available for sale, no cabins or motel rooms for rent, and no showers. The camp sites are "primitive," meaning no electrical or sewer hookups. You'll only have what you bring (except for there is running water and flush toilets), and you'll either stay in a tent or an RV you brought yourself. On the other hand, there's a small ruin, right behind campsite #26.

If you plan to stay, make reservations ahead of time via recreation.gov. Campsite availability opens three months out. It's $20/night. Other than peak weekends (solstice or equinox, I expect) it seems like you can often catch even weekend availability within a week or two of the actual date. Still, if your plans are solid, good idea to reserve early, and eat the $20 camping fee if your plans change, rather than risk not being able to go, at all. That said, if you know you're not going to make it, go back on recreation.gov and cancel, so someone else can take the spot.

Lower Clamshell Trail, Monrovia Hillside Preserve

Hiked June 8, 2025. Most recent hike (as of this writing), and the only the second "local" hike in a while.

A nearby friend posts frequently of he and his dog's walks or bikes (no dog!) up the trail. It's a fireroad, so plenty wide for non-technical biking, as well as hiking. Not sure if horses are also permitted. Dogs are permitted.

I may have made one hike on a different segment of the trail, a long, long time ago. Pretty sure this was the first time here. For me on this day, I parked near the end of Oakglade Drive in Monrovia. It's basically a continuation of North Canyon Blvd, if, instead of turning right, towards Monrovia Canyon Park, you continue "straight." Monrovia Canyon Park, btw, has been mostly closed due to fire and wind damage for the past five years, but is scheduled to reopen on June 27, 2025.

North Canyon Blvd, btw, does intersect with Foothill Blvd, about four blocks east of Myrtle (Old Town Monrovia), or seven blocks west of Mountain Ave. Most times I'm on Foothill, I manage to miss the sign for Monrovia Canyon Park, but, even without a sign for the park, there's a sign for the street, so a more careful driver (or one who has properly told their gps where to go) can find the street.

Where Oakglade turns into Ridgeside Drive, most of the area near the trailhead is either no parking, or resident parking (by permit), only. Once a week, it's also no parking for street sweeping. So, if you go check the signs to make sure you don't get ticketed.

On the day I hiked, it was pleasantly "June gloom," so overcast, even though it would warm up later in the day. That was helpful, since, at the time, I was on a course of antibiotics and was supposed to limit my sun exposure.

At the trailhead is a gate, with access permitted 6am - 9pm. Inside the gate, there's a big sign with a map, in case you want to take a picture and know where you can go from where you are. Also, there's a doggy poop bag dispenser, nearby.

Despite being June, there had only been a couple of hot days, so there were still quite a lot of flowers blooming, even at low altitude. I took pictures of most varieties I saw on this hike. Most, I can identify.

In order, it's lantana, California buckwheat, Spanish broom, California buckwheat, cliff aster, wild mustard, four times, then a big bull thistle, some sort of phacelia, a pair of morning glory, an unknown flower, a closs up of a cliff aster, then some fountain grass. At least, those are my guesses.

There is some signage along the way, which would indicate that the distance from the gate to the "Sunset Bench" is about 1 1/4 mile. Since you can't actually park at the gate, you'll likely walk 3 miles or more, roundtrip, from where you park to the bench and back.

There were other hikers and a biker I passed, but it actually wasn't very crowded for the time. I'm sure it can get busier, but, on the little segment I walked, it was pleasant enough. Nothing dramatic along the way, but nice.

I walked a pretty small segment of the entire road/trail, so there's several return trips, possible. On the other hand, it's mostly south-facing, and would get pretty hot under the sun. Not sure when I'll manage a return trip, with at least one starting at an alternate access point.

That's about all I have to say on this hike, although I did end up adding several "last thoughts," below.

Meanwhile, in terms of coming attractions, I managed a long/short trip to Chaco Culture National Historic Park. That's going to produce at least a few posts over the next to or three weeks.

I say long/short trip, because I was away from home for four days, which is relatively long, for me. And there were two nine-hour driving days, around two days of 4-5 hours of driving, all for two nights of camping, numerous short hikes, and one really long day of multiple hikes.

Yep, lots of photos to sort and try to put together into coherent stories. Who knows? Might even manage more hikes before I finish blogging that trip!

Oh, returning to this hike, I should note that I read about a LOT of bear sightings in the neighborhoods of Monrovia that abut the mountains, and the other hillside communities. Never hear about bad encounters, but there are a LOT of bears in the area, and many are habituated to people and their trash cans. So if you already have bear spray, it might be a good idea to keep it handy, and maybe try to avoid carrying aromatic foods on your hike.

Two other notes: Yes, dogs are permitted. I sort of implied that at the top. I would image there's a standard six-foot leash requirement. Regardless of that, you'll want to keep your dogs (especially smaller dogs) close by, since wildlife encounters are very possible, either with the bears I just mentioned, or coyotes or cougars, as is typical in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The gate is open from 6am to 9pm, btw. The good news is, apparently (I haven't tested this, myself), if you are a little late getting out off the trail, you can still open the gate from the inside, even if it's locked, from the outside.

Around North View Trail, JOTR

Hiked May 25, 2025. This was just a short evening hike. Originally planned for a little longer, but you can see by my shadow at the start of the hike that it was almost sunset by the time I got started. Even though there was no one checking payment at the entry kiosk, there was a line getting it. I think we were waiting for people who needed to use the restrooms by the west entry station to back out of their spaces.

Despite the late start, and a necessarily short hike, any sunset hike around Joshua Tree means pretty spectacular-looking rocks. I only covered around two miles, starting from the Maze Trailhead, and continuing mostly along the North View Trail, but with quite a bit of off-trail wandering, even in that short section.

Right near the start, I saw a boulder outcropping, and could see what looked like a "doorway," a large, flat boulder that provided a short tunnel. So I headed that way. Walked under the rock, then scrambled around this outcropping for a quite a while.

After that, I generally headed north, back to the trail. Wanted to get a view looking down into the towns of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley.

The sun set well before I got my view. Figured I'd have another 45 minutes or so before it got seriously dark, though, so I wasn't in a huge hurry.

That gave me time to enjoy the warm afternoon light on a few more boulder piles, as I made my way north and west. As the sun dropped below the horizon, I could see a slice of the valley, and headed that way.

Still stopped for lots of pictures as I made my way towards the cliff. Well, more of a drop-off. Piles of rocks. Could probably be walked down, but it would take some picking.

The view down from the edge is the fifth shot from the last. I took quite a lot of shots near there, but I guess I only stuck one of them in this post.

Heading back, I continued snapping away. Came across a formation that looked a little like a sad bunny. That's the third from the bottom. It's a closeup of the fourth shot from the bottom.

I knew I hadn't traveled far, so I wasn't worried, even as the sky grew darker. Before long, I could see the highway, and the row of cars, mostly leaving. It was still Memorial Day weekend, and that was expected.

In addition, they're building a new entrance station, further into the park than the existing West entrance. The current one (from above the town of Joshua Tree) often has cars lined back, blocking driveways for residents near the entrance station.

The new station will have multiple kiosks, and a longer "runway," so the line should be shorter and move faster. But, at the moment, that means an area with uneven pavement, shifting lanes, and, of course, a lower speed limit.

The expected completion date is "early 2026," so construction will continue for a while. That could mean even longer lines than normal for the West entrance.

The North entrance (near Twentynine Palms) normall has no lines, so the line I encountered earlier that day (blogged in the previous post) was a little unusual. I'm not sure if that was just normal Memorial Day weekend traffic, or due to some people avoiding the West entrance.

Shot a Joshua tree, silhouetted against a darkening evening sky. Those trees are just so darn picturesque!

Probably not making it back here until some time in July. That'll be an astronomy-first trip, so I probably won't manage any morning hikes. Maybe something short, in the afternoon, but I'm not sure. The easiest short north-side hike is 49 Palms Oasis, and that one is closed in the summer, to let the desert wildlife have access to the water when it needs it most.

I support that plan. On a previous trip to 49 Palms in the summer, there were some people who just hung around taking selfies for hours at a time, just them and the palms. On the other side of the trail, a herd of 20 or so desert big horn were hovering. I'm sure they were waiting for a chance to get some water, but couldn't, because of the annoying selfie taker.

Took a short hike last weekend in the local (San Gabriel) mountains. Yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged much local. Still have one or two more Joshua Tree hikes from last year to blog, too. More hikes planned the next few hikes, so I'll have a backlog for a while.