Spirit, Not a Ghost: Sunny and Cold Southwest - Tales of La Madre Travails Pt.2 Chaco Canyon and Trinity

Chaco Canyon Ruin

After living in New Mexico for a bit, La Mami and I gathered a few friends and we started exploring the beautiful ancient seabed that is NM. Starting with Chaco Canyon, a National Historical Park. This place is certainly worth visiting as it provides a variety of hikes through canyons and high desert terrain, as well as fascinating architecture from 850 to 1250 CE. The ancients who built these structures used sophisticated astronomical and cardinal reckonings to lay plans for their fantastic "Great Houses". The superiority of the work shines through in the lack of disintegration in these 1,000 year old buildings, except where huge slabs of the canyon fell and crushed them (but that's pretty awesome in and of itself). They built many of these sites, all within a line of sight, stretching over hundreds of miles for easier communication. Chaco Canyon was the center of a great culture, one that traded with the Mayans for cacao!

The circular buildings were at the heart of the ceremonies, they are big and impressive. Just as awe-inspiring, however, are the cliffs that the site sits up against, which are rich in fossil goodies! Apparently, it was located at the edge of an ancient seabed, so we found in our hike a huge variety of fossils - from castes of tunnels made by some crustacean to shark's teeth! It was a lovely hike, stopping every couple of feet to see some fossils or ruins, or to just take in the beauty of the desert. With the combination of fossils, ancient ruins, and volcanic activity, Chaco Canyon was an excellent visit for this Renaissance Woman!

Ancient rippled sea bed!

Coal deposits undermining the canyon.

A tight squeeze during the hike

Fossilized tunnels made by ancient crustaceans

A view of the canyon edge

Next, we headed to Trinity, the site of the first test of the atom bomb. The base it's located on used to open twice a year, free of charge, but I think they are starting to charge this year. Anyway, during that time, you can check out what is left of the structure that held the bomb (3 pieces of rebar steel, all twisted up) and can check out the radiated rocks that were created from the sand and the heat of the blast. It's green and is called Trinitite - it's illegal to take from the site, so we collected a bunch and took a picture of it. There's a cool monument and a replica of Fat Boy. My favorite aspect was the radiation warning signs. The radiation that you get from a visit there is less than when you take an airplane. Since I take planes a lot (my worst environmental impact) I will probably become like Spiderman or something...