Chimney Rock NM is an amazing site. The chacoan-era ruins on top of the steep-sided rocky outcrop are fascinating with Chimney Rock and Companion Rock alongside - the rocks can be seen for miles.
It's puzzling why this Chacoan-era site is not better known, we thought it was amazing. It is quite difficult to get to, requiring a drive up a steep, winding gravel road which was not in great condition when we were there. Then it is a hike in very exposed conditions.
We arrived at 10 am and were taken up in the shuttle, though it is usually only for visitors in larger vehicles such as RVs which aren't allowed to go up to the upper car park. We were lucky that it was early and not yet busy. The driver was used to the road and went up at quite a pace over the washboard gravel, fishtailing all the way.
Chimney Rock covers seven square miles and preserves 200 ancient homes and ceremonial buildings. It is highest in elevation of all the Chacoan sites at 7,000 ft.1
There are two trails which take you through the renovated structures. We did the Great House Trail first as it involves a relatively steep climb so we wanted to do it before it got overwhelmingly hot.
A very handy laminated guide is provided to carry with you around the site giving more information about the various structures.
Quite quickly you arrive at the Ridge House. This is a prehistoric home, partly subterranean, we had seen several similar at Mesa Verde. Ridge House probably dates from a period known as "Pueblo II", from around 1000 AD.2
The floor and base of the walls below ground were made from dirt and stone. The upper walls were braced with wooden poles, as were ceilings, and then adobe was applied. Roofs were flat and had an entrance hole for use with a ladder.
On Mesa Top Loop at Mesa Verde the early, pure pit house villages date from the late sixth century. A later village has both above-ground structures and pithouses, similar to the Ridge House.
On the way up a depression in the ground, surrounded by loose stones, marks the site of another pit house.
At the top is the Great House. Why it was built here is not known. Hundreds of thousands of blocks of stone were carried up from the base, a huge amount of effort. Large timbers also had to be transported here, and adobe - there is no water on the top. It is thought, therefore, that this must have been a very special site, perhaps associated with astronomical observations. The rituals and beliefs of the people who lived here were adopted from watching the movements of the sun and moon over long periods.
Many aspects of the Great House (and other Chimney Rock structures) illustrate the Ancestral Puebloans use of astronomy. A particularly important event occurs every 18.6 years. Called the Northern Major Lunar Standstill this is when the moon rises between the two pinnacles of Chimney Rock as seen from the Great House. It's possible that this is why the Great House was built here.
It is thought that the Chimney Rock settlement may have been an outlier Chacoan-era community, the centre of which was Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, though the two communities are a significant distance apart. Great Houses are a typical Chacoan construction - a large multi-roomed structure forming a pueblo.3
Two circular structures in the Great House appear to be partly subterranean, though this is only an effect achieved by a wall surrounding each kiva in which the void between wall and kiva was filled with dirt.4
The west kiva does not seem to have any of the usual characteristics of a kiva apart from a rather high bench - no evidence of pilasters, a firepit or ventilation.
We headed back down to do the second trail, a very easy quarter mile paved loop that weaves its way between a village of excavated pithouses and a reconstructed Great Kiva.
The pithouses here were not even partly subterranean but built on the bedrock. The lower walls were made of stone and mud mortar. On these a framework of timber poles was filled and covered with mud. The roof was formed on a similar framework supported on timber posts. A hole in the roof allowed entry with a ladder, it also provided an exit for smoke from the fire.
The Great Kiva is 44 feet in diameter, well above the 35 feet requirement to be called a Great Kiva. Kivas are usually built below ground but the bedrock here is very close to the surface so this would not have been possible. Kivas today are often ceremonial places, for instance in the Hopi village of Walpi on First Mesa in Arizona. The Great Kiva might also have been used for communal activities. It was built between 994 AD and 1084 AD.
