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| Hiking | 1.00 Miles |
40 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.00 Miles | 1 Hour 30 Mns | | 0.67 mph |
| 40 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | I had arrived in Chaco a little later than planned - a last chance to use my cell phone plus the ever delicious Blake's Lotaburger could not be refused. The sun had just dropped below the horizon by the time I left the pavement, and when I arrived to Randal and Mike at site 28 the sky was more black than blue. I was just in time for steaks and some beer - perhaps the most watered down and cheap beer I have ever had. At 35 cents per can, Cerveza Caguama (colloquially known as "Cag") certainly is in the running for the cheapest bulk beer you can buy, though the distinction between beer and water in the case of Cag is indistinct.
Randy and I awoke early to catch the morning sun working its magic in Pueblo Bonito while the crowds gathered around Casa Rinconada to the south. While the sunlight wasn't cooperating with Randy, I was enjoying having the ruin to ourselves. Despite the cool morning the interior of Bonito was warm. We noticed that the walls were radiating heat back into the air, making the dark corridors and rooms pleasant to explore. I was looking for corner windows pointing towards the northeast, in hopes of catching a solar alignment for the solstice. We found a few that would be observable, but before the sun came up Randy had to attend to some other business. I had all of Pueblo Bonito to myself! The quiet was overwhelming while I sat patiently in one of the rooms with a corner doorway, waiting for that first inkling of sun. I noticed that the room to my south was getting light on its upper courses of stone, so I ducked through the door. A ruined doorway on the second story led to the west, and bracketing it were two beams of light; one from a doorway and another from a small, square hole located near the northern corner of the room. Awesome! The sun was on the rise, the earth moving around. The shadows crept lower as I watched, presaging what we would be witnessing at Casa Rinconada the next day. I didn't want to miss my corner window alignment (if there was to be one), so I made my way back into the other room.
Sun was coming through a doorway and another small square hole, but the earth hadn't turned enough to let the sun peek through the corner. I watched the light beams play on the west wall, moving and growing until suddenly a new spot appeared and I gasped. The northwest corner of the room had a corner doorway as well, and as I watched the sunlight began to "ooze" out of the NW doorway; a long tongue starting at the sill and extending down to where the prehistoric floor had been. Now I don't know if the effect was intentional, but it was quite striking none the less.
Having seen what I came to see, I made my way back through the rabbit warren of rooms to the plaza, where I saw the sun hitting the cliffs. I followed the trail to the top of the overlook on the remains of Threatening Rock. While I was taking a couple of overview photos, I heard a voice calling out to me. Randy was waiting at the base of the ruin - it was time to go back to camp and grab some breakfast.
Next - South Mesa: http://hikearizona.com/TL.php?ID=52455 |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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"The only thing we did was wrong was staying in the wilderness to long...the only thing we did was right was the day we started to fight..."
-Old Spiritual
My book, The Marauders on Lulu and Amazon |
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