<< Our Photo Pages >> Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto - Ancient Village or Settlement in United States in The Southwest
Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 16 October 2006 Page Views: 4352
Multi-periodSite Name: Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto Alternative Name: 29SJ389, LA 661, Bc 251Country: United States Region: The Southwest Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Farmington, NM Nearest Village: Cuba, NM
Latitude: 36.069917N Longitude: 107.95767W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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jeffrep would like to visit
bat400 visited on 26th Apr 2012 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 2 I decided to hike directly to the site and back using the park service trail (which also includes a loop on the mesa top with an overlook of the Chetro Ketl site and a view of the Jackson Staircase, an ancient stairway carved into the cliff.)
Pueblo Alto has had minimal excavations. The southwestern portion has the most exposed and intact portions, and the walls there show broad stone blocks separated by thin bands of tabular stone. But, the entire site can be circled, seeing the layout of the rooms and central plaza. If you feel the need to cross the mound of the rooms to the central plaza (not expressly forbidden, but definitely discouraged) please follow a path that has already been made, and don't step on the structures stones.
From the northern room blocks there are signs identifying Huerfano Mountain on the horizon in the direction of a northern Chaco road that led toward Chacoan communities on the San Jaun River.
The most difficult part of this hike (which took two and a half hours to walk to Pueblo Alta, New Alta and back, with stops for photography and viewing Pueblo Bonito from the cliff edge) was getting up on the mesa from the trailhead (and back down). From the trailhead parking area, you walk on a flat track to Kin Kletso. Then directly behind that site you go straight up the cliff, following a marked but tightly switch backed climb over boulders for about 40 feet high. The last bit of this is unsupported on the west side (sheer drop off,) but you'd really have to be flailing around to make it dangerous. At this point you can see where the trail goes up a crack behind the cliff face. Although this too is over boulders, you are in the shade and have the cliff walls on both sides until you emerge at the top, 140 feet off the canyon floor.
The trail goes over bare rock along the edge of the cliff (following small cairns) and then turns north toward the two mesa top Great Houses. You have to climb up one more terrace (again, over boulders - tough on my short legs) and then the path is very obvious, through the sage brush and clumps of wildflowers (blooming in April). The total elevation change from the canyon floor appears to be about 250 feet, but if you are a flat lander, it seems like more than that.
Follow the park guidelines and take plenty of water (even if you end up bringing some of it back with you), where a hat and decent walking shoes/boots. I would say a long sleeve cotton shirt is a must, and I also took a jacket (just in case.) The temperature was actually fairly cool, but the only shade was when you are going up the crack in the cliff, so it felt quite warm.
The park service makes this portion of the trail as easy as possible with markers at turns and occasionally placing placards by objects of interest. These include exposed fossils, two bedrock grinding bowls, actual stairs created by the Chacoans, and a portion of ancient roadway showing the stone cerb. I also saw a fairly obvious spiral petroglyph on a boulder.
Pueblo Alto is a village ruin at the junction of several ancient roads centered on Chaco Canyon.
One road ending at Pueblo Alto runs north toward the San Juan River, thirty miles away, then jogs to the west to the Salmon Ruins another Chaco Culture settlement. Not unlike Roman roads in their directness, Chaco roads run in straight lines between points, running down into gullies and over mesas.
The first construction Great House occurred about A.D. 1020, with renovations continuing for half a century. The south arc of rooms enclosing the plaza was added in the early 1100s. There are 120 rooms and 18 kivas.
The site is north of the canyon on top of the mesa and is accessible by a hiking trail. The hike takes approximately 2.5 hours to go directly to the ruin, examine it and return back to the trail head. A longer loop trail will pass Pueblo Alto and other sites. This is a very rewarding hike to take as it allows views of several of the Great Houses in the canyon from above, as well as visible indications of a Chaco road. The way up onto the 140 foot mesa cliffside involves a scramble up a steep boulder trail.
[Information from National Park Service website, the Chaco Research Archive for Pueblo Alto.]
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
192m W 266° Chaco Culture NHP - New Alto* Ancient Village or Settlement
1.1km SSW 199° Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito* Ancient Village or Settlement
1.1km SSE 163° Chaco Culture NHP - Chetro Ketl* Ancient Village or Settlement
1.2km SW 216° Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo del Arroyo* Ancient Village or Settlement
1.2km WSW 245° Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Kletso* Ancient Village or Settlement
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