Alt Text

Map of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. The park is outlined in green and filled in with a lighter shade. The surrounding areas are beige. Roads represented with red or black lines.

Extended Description

Chaco Canyon runs diagonally through Chaco Culture National Historical Park, which has mostly straight, stepped sides. Visitors can enter the park via State Route 57 from the south or County Road 7950 from the northeast. Both roads lead to the park’s Visitor Center near the Fajada Butte and the Una Vida prehistoric site, which has a self-guided trail and petroglyphs. Northeast of the Visitor Center is the Gallo campground and campfire circle. A backcountry trail requiring a permit to use leads east from the campground to the Wijiji prehistoric site.

Back at the Visitor Center, a paved road travels northwest into the center of the park, where it forms a narrow loop through the canyon. The loop passes several prehistoric sites including Hungo Pavi, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, and the Casa Rinconada Community, each of which has a self-guided trail. From the Casa Rinconada Community, a backcountry trail requiring a permit to use creates a circuit that leads to the Tsin Kletsin prehistoric site.

At the very tip of the canyon loop is a short road with parking that leads to the Pueblo del Arroyo prehistoric site. From there, another backcountry trail requiring a permit leads to several other prehistoric sites including Kin Klesto, the Pueblo Alto Complex, Casa Chiquita, and Peñasco Blanco.

The West Mesa curves along the left third of the park, South Mesa south of the canyon, and Chacra Mesa along the southeast edge of the park.

Legend

A scale in the bottom left corner of the map measures 0.5 and 1 kilometer and 0.5 and 1 mile.

To the right a legend reads as follows:

Green square for Prehistoric Sites,

Black dashed line for Backcountry Trails that require permits to use,

Red line for Paved Road,

Red line with a dot for Parking, and

Black line for Unpaved Road.

To the right of the legend, two symbols represent Self-guiding trail and Campground.