"Legacy of a Lost Culture" Chaco Culture National Historical Park by AlbuqRay

I live in Albuquerque but it had been many years since I visited Chaco Canyon. Since I was going to a jujube tree workshop at the NMSU Alcalde Sustainable Agriculture Science Center near Espanola, NM, on 29 Sep 2011, I decided to take a road trip in north central New Mexico after the workshop. A question in a VT forum in Feb 2011 about where to stay near Cuba, NM, when visiting Chaco Canyon led me to find the Suenos Encantados B&B. Located on a remote, historical ranch, it looked like an interesting place to visit just on its own. I included both Chaco and the B&B in my road trip itinerary.

Historical Chaco Canyon

Since Goodfish (Kate) already has such excellent tips on Chaco Canyon, I'll mostly just supplement what she has covered and reference my Shutterfly website on the jujube workshop and road trip. There are like 75 pics in the Places album of scenes and things on the road into Chaco (starting at picture #224) and 474 pics with descriptions in the Chaco album itself. Two of the nine travelogues here show and describe how to get to Chaco Canyon from US-550. There are also a couple of videoclips: one of Chaco Canyon taken from Pueblo Bonito on the north side and the other of the canyon taken from the Casa Rinconada Great Kiva on the south side.

Note that VT has two destinations in their taxonomy with reviews that reference Chaco: Chaco Canyon National Monument (the designation from 1907 to 1980) and Chaco Culture National Historical Park (the current name of the park). Goodfish's tips are under the former. There is actually a third VT destination, Chaco Culture National Historic Park Historical Marker, but at least there are no reviews under it.

La Casa Vieja at Suenos Encantados B&B at Sunset

I ended up spending two nights at the beautiful and historical Suenos Encantados B&B. It is definitely a place for enchanting dreams. See my tips on Cuba, NM, for the details on Casa Viejo, La Capilla and the main house. Suenos Encantados is ~77 miles and 1.5 hours from Chaco Canyon, including the 21 miles on the road in from US-550. Chaco is an amazing place and I spent a whole day touring the sites. After surviving the 10 miles of the badly washboarded dirt road (of the 21 miles) each way on the route into and out of Chaco, it was wonderful to relax and watch the sunset at Suenos Encantados B&B.

• Pros:Amazing historical ruins and beautiful vistas
• Cons:10 miles of washboard road each way when going in and out
• In a nutshell:Remote site but well worth the effort to get there