The last post on Colorado, with a mural in downtown Pagosa Springs a fine nod to our lovely horseback ride.

Desert Allium

Now we are at Chimney Rock National Monument, considered the Northeastern most outlier site to Chaco Canyon and likely placed for ceremonies to observe the moon. If you’d like to learn more about this fascinating and reverential collection of structures, I highly recommend the documentary The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, narrated by Robert Redford. There was also a great article in New Mexico Magazine recently, though it only describes outlier sites within the state.

If I remain very still, she will not see me.

The site is on a high ridge overlooking the Ute Reservation.

This is the view south to Chaco Canyon, some fifty miles away. A high school student used mirrors to prove that it was possible to communicate between the sites, though they likely used fire.

Indian Paintbrush – I always get slightly melancholy when I see it, as it was the favorite flower of my Grandpa Herbie. He was killed in a motorcycle accident when my Dad was six years old, so we both missed out on truly knowing him.

Nearly all of the buildings have been reconstructed using the original stones. It was an amazing feat, especially when considering they worked on a high ridge, with scarcely enough room for a wheelbarrow to move the stone up the mountain, had they existed at the time.

Desert Mallow

This section is in original condition, having been in place for over a thousand years.

It is between these two spires that the moon rises during a Major Lunar Standstill, which occurs every 18.6 years, and, by all accounts, would be quite amazing to witness in person. I was in awe on a regular spring day!