After breakfast, we went out for a hike on the Pueblo Alto trail, which Marianne and I had hiked before. In this case, the views and the hike are more impressive than the ruins. A few minutes from the car, the trail heads up towards the cliff, and leaves you wondering where it is going. It heads up a pile of rocks, and then into a crack that takes you to the top of the cliff. The girls loved it. Marianne made it, but needed help in spots.
The view from the top of the cliff is an overlook of the canyon; We walked over to look down on the Pueblo Bonito ruins. We could really see the layout of the ruins, the big “D” shape that the ruins form. So many kivas.
After that, we hiked up the trail towards Pueblo Alto. The view became more expansive as we got closer to the top of the mesa. We stopped to look at the Chacoan stairs and road. Perhaps the biggest excitement was an extended view of a Collared Lizard, a beautiful lizard of green, red, and yellow. He let us look at him over a long time, while we ate lunch, so we took plenty of pictures. After lunch we decided to turn back, although we were very close to Pueblo Alto, and could see it just up the hill.
In the afternoon, Marianne and Richard took a nap while the girls played. We headed to the visitor center for the evening star talk and show. The talk was about archeo-astronomy, with pictures of various alignments that may or may not have been coincidences. Richard chatted before the show with John, who is a volunteer astronomer for the park. They give him an apartment, and he stays in the park for a month or two. After the talk, it was time to look through the telescopes. We all got to see the rings of Saturn, some of the moons of Jupiter, and Venus. It was the first time that most of us had seen the rings of Saturn. Erica slept through most of the talk, but did enjoy looking through the telescopes.
A great day in Chaco.
Richard
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