Long Weekend in Chaco Canyon | Sunday
Sunday, June 12, 2011
On Sunday morning I slept in just a bit later than on Saturday…..not because I wanted to, but because I was planning on photographing through the doorways of Pueblo Bonito during the early morning sunlight, and the park would not be opening the gates until 7am…..so there was no use for me to get up earlier than I had to. I arrived at the gate a few minutes before 7am in hopes that it would be opened early. It wasn’t. They actually didn’t come open it until 10 minutes after 7…..which means I was sitting in my Jeep anxiously waiting. Once the gate was opened, I went straight to Pueblo Bonito and started shooting…..I didn’t have much time before the sun would be too high.
Nice light through the big T-shaped doorway.
A typical doorway photo in Pueblo Bonito.
Once the sun was too high, we made our way over to check out the Casa Rinconada Community.
The large kiva at Casa Rinconada.
When we were done exploring there, we went back to camp to pack up. Here’s a photo of the ruin behind our campsite.
Once we were all packed up and ready to go we stopped to take one last hike to Wijiji before starting the drive home.
Hiking along the old closed road to Wijiji….Fajada Butte in the background.
Faint pictographs near Wijiji. There are a number of faint negative handprints, faint spirals and red lines, plus a couple of zoomorphs that appear to be standing in the middle. I wish I had brought my telephoto lens with me on this hike, but I wasn’t sure how close we would be able to get to these pictographs when we started…
A closer look.
A nice sky over Wijiji.
Hiking back from Wijiji in Chaco Canyon.
Thankfully, the drive home was uneventful with no further issues with the Jeep. We both had a great weekend and lucked out with great weather that wasn’t too hot (especially for this time of the year) and are looking forward to our next trip to Chaco Canyon in the future!