Elopement (Chimney Rock #2)

After leaving Treasure Falls and stopping in Pagosa Springs for lunch we headed about 17 miles West of town to the Chimney Rock Archaeological Area. We needed to catch the last tour for the day which left at 2pm. We managed to setup camp in the Ute Campgrounds (less than half a mile up the road) and make it for the 2pm tour with five minutes to spare. It was worth it:

(click to view)

There are a couple of interesting things to note about the Chimney Rock area. The first is that it is part of the Chaco Culture that makes up part of lower Colorado and Northern New Mexico. It was a major trading route that existed around 1000A.D. We learned that when standing from the top of the Chimney Rock area, you can see a plateau about 60 miles to the South. Apparently, back in the day, you could light signal fires from Chimney Rock to that plateau. The plateau could then be used to signal the Chaco Culture even further to the South. Makes me wish I could have spent more time camping at the Chaco Culture earlier this year. I plan to return.

The other interesting thing to note is that during that day in age, the people of this period would have witnessed a few major events. One is the explosion of the Sunset Volcano (now known as Sunset Crater in Northern Arizona), the other is Haley’s Comet, and the last is the bright light of the Crab Nebula super nova (if I have my facts right) which lasted for many days (even in sunlight). Pretty cool time to be alive despite that you started having a family at roughly the age of 12 and were probably dead by 25 or 30 due to tuberculous.

I mentioned that we camped in the Ute Campgrounds just up the road at the start of this post. Not a bad area with plenty of trees. My only complaint is that it is not far from the road so you do get some traffic noise. It was convenient though and, in this case, worth it.

Tags: Elopement

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