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Chimney Rock National Monument
It was a pleasure to be able to fix a very simple breakfast this morning. Y likes to sleep in when at the cabin and I was allowed full access to the kitchen during the mornings. It did land me in some trouble as I would invariably empty out the dishwasher, which I was not supposed to do. I just couldn't help myself! Meh. I could live with it.
X and Y had asked us what we had wanted to do whilst in Pagosa the night before. I suspected that they already had plans for us; so we pretty much told them to give us the local intel for what we were supposed to do. DH and I did say that we had been a little disappointed in not being able to fit Mesa Verde in the schedule and had thought of heading back that way. X and Y advised that it would take 3 hours from the cabin to get to the top of Mesa Verde so we ruled it completely out.
They proposed an alternative for us instead. The clincher was that this alternative was only opened between May to September. We were lucky to be there just before the end of the season.
Yesterday, on the drive down to Pagosa, we had passed an interesting looking natural stone structure.
Chimney Rock National Monument is one of Americans newest National Monuments. It was only declared to be one by President Obama in 2012. X and Y didn't give us much information about it other than insisting that we go and check it out.
Chimney Rock lies within the San Juan National Forest between Durango and Pagosa Springs and encompasses 4,726 acres around the twin spires known as Chimney Rock and Companion Rock. It would be a 45 - 60 minute drive depending on whether road construction had started up or not.
We got to the entry at the bottom bang on 9.30 am; and our luck was holding. To see and experience Chimney Rock, we were told by X and Y to sign up for the guided tour. There was one starting at 9.30 am and given that there were 3 car loads of people at the bottom of the mountain, they radioed the guide at the top and held the tour for us.
There was quite a group for the tour. We started out heading down a little way from the parking lot at the top.
It was then, when we were on the tour, that we realised that Chimney Rock was littered with hundreds of prehistoric archaeological sites. Take a look at the rocks in the picture here. That's a filled in home!
Our guide told us that the Ancient Puebloans would come to this area somewhere between 500 BC to 1000 AD. Settlement up here at Chimney Rock can be traced back to 900 AD and it would appear that the Puebloans here were quite advanced. This Stone Circle is believed to serve as a place to observe astronomical events. Many pecked stone basins have been found within Chaco Canyon and the Four Corners area. It was at this point that our guide told us something about this Stone Circle that got me super excited about being here.
Chimney Rock was apparently a major site for pottery. The fragments of pottery that our guide shared were intricate in design and amazingly detailed.
We were to find out that there were some rather significant buildings at this site. The Pit House was similar in architectural style to the other residences within the High Mesa cluster around here. The wood from this house dates its construction to 1077 AD. There are 3 work rooms outlined by the stone foundations in the Pit House.
Based on the dig findings, these were used for food processing, stone workroom and cooking/food storage. Maize had been a pretty big crop for the Puebloans so we were given the chance to mill some the way they would have done.
The Pit House had been set on fire some 950 years ago by the Puebloans. They still don't know why they did so.
Chimney Rock's Great Kiva is the largest excavated single-room structure on the High Mesa and was constructed around 1084 AD. To be designated a Great Kiva, the diameter must be 35 feet or more; and the one here is nearly 44 feet across. It is assumed that the kivas were used for ceremonial purposes. This particular one was constructed different to the other kivas; it is speculated that this one was opened to the sky.
The simple stone and mortar construction style for the buildings here!
It might have been late in the season, but I was pretty pleased to see the Paintbrush wildflower in bloom.
And the presence of lichen told me that the air was very clean up here.
We headed back to the parking lot and then headed up the mountain. This part of the trail is closed to the general public and you can only head up if you are with a guide.
We passed more homes and ceremonial buildings along the way. Afterall, there were more than 200 homes on Chimney Rock. We were advised that these buildings, Ridge Houses, represents an archaeological style separate from the residential pit houses and the ceremonial great house. The structure was not built all at once but rather grew over the years, possibly as the residential family grew.
We kept climbing. There were stones all along the way and our guide said that these were filled in homes. They did excavate some time ago; but filled them back in again after they had completed their survey.
We're at 7,700 feet above sea level here. The ground on either side of the path isn't very wide.
Our guide asked us to consider the Puebloan children running and playing around up here. There were no safety nets to keep them safe. It makes you think about how we cocoon our kids these days!
The views were spectacular. Our guide pointed out the mountain range in this direction (south). Keep heading straight and we would hit Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
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So does it actually say somewhere that the marker is incorrect?
That 'cabin' is far bigger and more luxurious than our house, and possibly any of our future houses
No one in the US has a second home that isn't more spectacular than their primary home.
but one floor would be just fine 
