Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Pueblo Bonito Ancient Ruins

The ancient ruins of Chaco Culture Historical Park are located in Northwestern New Mexico, southeast of Farmington.  The park is immediately adjacent to Bisti Wilderness Area, but access roads to the two areas are quite distant from each other.  The park is one of only a limited number of sites in the world which have been designated as a World Heritage Site.  Accessibility to the park is good, if you are willing to overlook the highly washboarded condition of the last four miles of gravel road leading into the park.  Although there are several separate ruins in the park, the largest of these is called Pueblo Bonito.  That is where I spent the majority of my visit to the park.

Nested Doorways in Pueblo Bonito

Visitors are able to walk through the ruins of Pueblo Bonito, which enables one to capture images like the one above.  This image reminds me of a toy I had as a small child, which consisted of a series of nested plastic barrels.  As you took apart the barrel on the outside, you found yet another smaller barrel inside it.

Flowering Cactus Among the Ruins

Courtyards of Pueblo Bonito