It has been an amazing day of getting a whole picture of what life was like from 850 to 1250AD. We have visited a dozen villages and Pueblos in the canyon, done a long ranger led talk and stood silently in many intact rooms, one with an original ceiling. The picture I get is that this whole canyon floor, many miles long and quarter of a mile wide was once a center of commerce and home to thousands of Native Americans at a time. A few hundred villages, with as many as 25 rooms each were settled here. Other huge structures, such as Pueblo Bonita were centers for administration, commerce and justice. People from hundreds of miles away were linked by culture and belief with these people and they traded with people as far away as Mexico. They were craftsmen of astounding abilities in areas of masonry and stone fashioning, and pottery. They farmed and created weapons with flint. They communicated with languages- 3 distinct languages are know to have been spoken as different as German is from Japanese. And there art was beautiful and expressive.
Pueblo Bonita was the first in our visit and to me the most impressive. There is one area of rooms very much intact and walking from room to room is quite a trip. The doorways are small, but there is a feeling there of liveliness and purpose. The buildings are 3 and 4 stories high and the walls are flat and true and works of art themselves. There the stones are thin and long and flat on the outside. I found myself staring at the artistry in the masonry as much as at the building as a whole. The courtyard in Bonita has a different feel than the rooms. I had the pleasure of walking it all alone. I walked from one end to the other and just relaxed and cleared my mind. I swear I could feel others close. Open, with kivas nearby, and a view of the whole valley, it seemed a place of social friendliness and exchange. I know that I am reading into my experience, but the feel is very different than a walk through the deep woods or near a raging waterfall. There is an inspiration here, in the courtyard or deep in the rooms. We are new and they were old and we have gathered so much knowledge in the thousand years since they lived here, but I truly believe they had/have much to teach us if they could.
At a nearby Great House, a mile from Bonita, we found another set of walls, 3 or 4 stories high and smaller. The masonry was different but beautiful. I found a small trail that led up the side of the cliff. It was impossibly straight up but I followed the dozens of switchbacks and then disappeared straight into the rock. A crack between a million tons of rock allowed passage up the cliff and to the top of the mesa. From there I had another view of the village below. There was a magic to its geometry. I hope the photo I took gives some element to what I saw. This trail, I found later, was an ancient trail that the native people used to get to the top of the mesa and I am sure that many stood and stared, at the beauty, looked for friends or enemies, or took off traveling from this vantage point to the north.
We leave today, heading for Mesa Verde, a sister place of the Chacoians. I have feel a deeper spirit here than anywhere. I will reflect on this place much.
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