Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito is the only great house visitors are allowed to walk through the rooms of.

Andrew Kearns.

Located 4 1/2 miles from the Visitor Center on the 9-mile Canyon Loop Drive. The trail through Pueblo Bonito is 0.6 mile, roundtrip. It is graveled, and climbs several short, steep rises.

Pueblo Bonito is the most thoroughly investigated cultural site in Chaco Canyon and visitors are permitted to walk through the original rooms of the structure. Planned and constructed in stages between 850 CE to 1150 CE (Common Era) by ancestral Pueblo people, this was the center of the Chacoan world. That world eventually covered a vast area of the present-day Southwest, including the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, and portions of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. For over 300 years, Chacoan Culture united many diverse peoples within its sphere of influence.