During my trip to New Mexico, I went with my moms and grandma to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Regular readers may remember that I've been here before in October, 2011.  I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with my Mom, who hadn't been with us on our last visit.



Chaco Canyon is a very special place. You can visit the different towns that the ancestral Puebloan people built almost a thousand years ago. My family did a hike at Chetro Ketl, then wound around the Petroglyph Trail and Pueblo Bonito. The Petroglyphs at Chaco were a little different than the ones we saw before at Petroglyph National Monument.

 
I took another picture behind Pueblo Bonito, in almost the same spot as last fall. It was really nice to visit the park with both my parents.  I love going places with my whole family, don't you?



There are lots of cool rock formations in the canyon. I liked to pretend I was an ancient cave person living in the little nooks and crannies in the rocks.Wouldn't it be fun to have a treasure hunt in the rocks at Chaco Canyon? An Easter Egg hunt would be really fun too.  I imagined what it was like to be an ancestral Puebloan girl visiting Chaco. Maybe a girl just my age climbed on this very same rock a thousand years ago!




At the end of the day, we climbed up the canyon walls to the very top. My grandma kept telling me to stay away from the edge, but I kept inching closer and closer. I'm brave!  Here I am looking at the gap in the canyon walls.  It was so windy at the top of the canyon! My bangs blew all the way back.  I didn't think I could make it up the steep canyon walls, but I did it! So did my moms and my grandma.  I was so proud.  It was a beautiful way to end the day at Chaco Canyon.

I love National Parks so much, but I think Chaco Canyon just might be my favorite one. To virtually visit the park, check out the park website at http://www.nps.gov/chcu!