Heading home

Bruce and Dora packed up for the eight hour drive to Boulder. Richard and Marianne decided to relax in Chaco, a lazy Sunday, and get up early on Monday for the drive back to Boulder.


We stopped for lunch in South Fork. The Sangre de Cristo mountains were beautiful.

The drive home was uneventful, if slow, 10 hours from Chaco to home. We were both pretty tired.

Touring and Hiking Chaco

On Friday, we did some touring of Chaco, walking through Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl, as well as admiring some petroglyphs. This was Dora's first trip to Chaco, and it was nice to introduce her to it.

On Friday evening,it was rainy and cloudy, so we played games. Dora won at scrabble, as usual.




On Saturday, we geared up for the big hike up through the slot and up to the higher land on the north side of the canyon. Marianne was not sure if she could get up there, but she did. We walked over to where we could look down on the D-shaped Pueblo Bonito, even more impressive from above. Dora and Marianne decided to hang out near the canyon rim. Bruce and Richard decided to hike the loop trail to Pueblo Alto, the Jackson stairway, as well as the overlook of Chetro Ketl. We met up with the ladies and the overlook, and headed down the slot canyon. A pretty good workout, all in all.

Panorama on top of canyon including Pueblo Alto

Jackson Stairway, hacked into the rock by the ancient indians.

Bruce descending an interesting part of our hike.

Saturday evening, we took in the talk and slide show at the visitor center, including some viewing through some of the telescopes. We headed back to the camper, where Bruce set up to start observing. Richard stayed out with Bruce for a while, and got to see some star clusters.

Off to Chaco Canyon

We left Boulder on Wednesday, driving through the San Luis Valley, on our way to Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, to meet our friends Bruce and Dora. On Wednesday, we stopped in South Fork, a tourist town between seasons. South Fork was almost dead; we stopped to get a campsite, and the lady was not sure if the campground was open. Her husband said that they were open, and turned on the water for us.

Thursday morning we drove up to Wolf Creek Pass, and stopped in Pagosa Springs to visit our favorite bakery, and look for a bird book. The cinnamon roll was good, but no luck on a bird book. The sign on the Moonlight bookstore said that "Now that ski season is over, it is time to quit pretending that we are responsible buisness owners and go rafting". We continued south past Navaho Dam, and then on to Chaco. The dirt road into Chaco started out pretty good, but then the washboard hit, and shook our truck and camper pretty hard. We had to pick up stuff off the floor of the camper when we got to Chaco.

We filled up the camper with water, and then chose a campsite with a view up the canyon. Our friends arrived late in the afternoon. Bruce started to set up his telescope. When it got dark, Bruce showed us the stars and the moons of Saturn.