Chaco Culture NHP is another ancestral Pueblo site. This site includes 9 great houses similar to the one at Aztec Ruins. There are two things that makes Chaco so interesting: it contains the two largest great houses that are known to exist; and it is located in the middle of nothing, it takes 45 minutes on a 20 mile gravel, dirt and rutted mud road to access it. It is so cut off that there are times it is without electricity or phone service and there are times that the road in and out is closed, especially after rain. When the road is closed, any visitors or staff are stuck there until the road and the creek crossing dry out. The site itself is breathtaking because of its size and because the two largest great houses are backed by a cliff. In fact, Pueblo Bonita has a back corner that was destroyed because a huge bolder fell from the side of the cliff and landed on the wall of the great house. Chaco, Aztec, and the well-known Mesa Verse are related parks with the same group of American Indians occupying them over a span of 300+ years.
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| Last 4 miles before you get there looks like this. Impassable when wet. |
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| Pueblo Bonita |
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| Boulders fallen on wall |
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| Ancestral Kiva (area for social or spiritual gathering) |
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