Southwest Trip 2010 - Wednesday, March 17

It was 22 degrees at 6:30 a.m. this morning.  And we were in a tent.  I didn't sleep well, I was too cold!  Marc made eggs and hasbrowns for breakfast.  We spent some time birdwatching at camp.  I didn't bring a bird book and unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of the interesting birds we saw flying around our campsite.

We left at 10 am for the "outliers"....several sites that are outside of Chaco Canyon but are associated with it.  These sites are reached by very, very bad roads...in some cases they are merely tracks through the desert soil or brush.

Gate on Road to Kin Ya'a

Kin Ya'a means "the tall house" and this was the road where I thought our car was going to flip over at one point.  It was the smallest outlier site but still rich in potsherds. 

We then moved on to Kin Bineola, a site that my friend Will loves. Kin Bineola means "house of the swirling winds".  Like the other outliers, it is out in "the middle of nowhere" and is hard to reach. 

Approach to Kin Bineola



Jack and Logan, Kin Bineola





Marc and Rosie at Kin Bineola

After Kin Bineola we attempted to find Kin Klizhin.  We had the park service map, a Gazetteer, the AAA "Indian Country" map...and we still could not find the right spot.  We ended up driving on an ever ascending rut to a high plateau where we saw petrified wood poking out of the ground in one spot and saw fossils.   How incredible is that?  These things are just OUT THERE.  We had no way of knowing if we were on the right road or private land or where the road might lead. We tried several other "ruts" as well, but we finally gave up and went to Pueblo Pintado, probably the most heavily visited outlier due to it's proximity to a paved road.  It's amazing how many potsherds are just laying around, sometimes in the hundreds. 


Pueblo Pintado

 

Jack, Pueblo Pintado

Anasazi Black on White Pottery

Pueblo Pintado Potsherd Search
(not to keep)

We returned to camp for dinner and went to visit a dog we saw at a campsite across the small road.  He was off-leash and a ranger happened to stop by while we were talking, and advised them to keep the dog on a leash due to the coyotes in the area...they sometimes have a loose dog take off after the coyotes.  Then he told a startling story about a few weeks ago when some coyotes were hunting a deer on the mesas above the campground.  They pursued the deer and it went off the edge of the cliff right into someone's campsite!  Poor deer....but it is a funny story.  Can you imagine a deer falling into your campsite from above?