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, 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.