Question:
I am looking for any info on Chaco Canyon. Can anyone backpack there? Maybe 4 or 5 days worth. Water sources? Permission needed? Times of the year that would be god times to go. Any particular place that is interesting culturally, archology, geology. Can reply directly to me or to the newsgroup. Any info would be appreciated.
Response:
I am looking for any info on Chaco Canyon. Can anyone backpack there? Maybe 4 or 5 days worth. Water sources? Permission needed? Times of the year that would be god times to go. Any particular place that is interesting culturally, archology, geology. Can reply directly to me or to the newsgroup. Any info would be appreciated.
There is a small camp area with water. It’s not the kind of place where you take a 4-5 day cross-country backpacking trip. But, you will greatly enjoy day-hiking around the place for a couple of days. The whole thing is a very large archeological site. Federal site. Maybe a nominal fee – don’t recall. I would go right now. Maybe a little cold, but mid-summer is just too much. No stores nearby. PC Crash Test Dummy
Response:
I am looking for any info on Chaco Canyon.
Check your local library — there are plenty of good books out on the history and archaeology of Chaco. …Can anyone backpack there?
Yes, but I’m not sure if camping out is allowed. …Water sources?
On your back. There’s a local campgrounds with a water tap; other than that, you lug it around. …Permission needed?
You need a permit to go off-trail; I don’t know if this entitles you to pitch a tent outside of the campgrounds (it’s a desert, and thus ecologically fragile). Chaco is administered by (IIRC) the Nat’l. Park Service — they ought to be able to give you the details. …Times of the year that would be god times to go.
Avoid wet months (sometimes March, usually August). There are two roads into Chaco, both involve 20+ miles of dirt road, both turn into mud bogs when they’re wet. If you’re there and it rains, your stay will get extended a few weeks… …Any particular place that is interesting culturally, archology, geology.
Honestly, the whole place is fascinating. Read everything you can get your hands on, and go! Eric Seale Eric Seale | Optimist: The glass is half full Eric.Seale | Pessimist: The glass is half empty
Response:
Chaco Canyon? Nothing to see there! Just a bunch of dried up ol’ arroyos… a couple o’rock piles associated with early human habitation… the rain and snow are just outrageous… even though it’s not high elevation, it is a desert and the air is so thin that even the coyotes gasp for air on uphill stretches of trail… One week it’s dry as a bone with no water anywhere, the next week it’s flooding out the arroyos and washing the roads and ruins to oblivion. How they manage to keep the place a National Park, I’ll never understand… Better to just go to Washington D.C. and see Anasazi stuff behind glass where it can’t hurt you.
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