I’ve been a good son this weekend and decided to visit my mother (parents) for Mother’s Day. The fact that my parents live in New Mexico is an added bonus for me, the photographer. Not surprisingly, my folks have as much a love of the landscape, ancient cultures and exploration as I do and while they don’t necessarily take it to the extremes I have – they don’t love new discoveries and adventure any less. Which is why our day trip to Chaco Canyon – a National Historic Park that causes you to ask more questions than there are answers – was such a great experience.
While I’ll let the photos below tell the story, the day was filled with roaming the halls of ancient stone structures built a thousand years before Columbus set foot in the Americas, a discovery of sherds of pottery made by ancient hands and a mountain of rock – the Fajada Butte – that holds a thousand-year old sundial that shines a golden dagger of light, known as the Sun Dagger, onto rock art every summer and winter solstice.
Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon National Historic Site, New Mexico
Portrait of my mother, in the distance, Fajada Butte
Ancient Pottery sherd with striped painting still visible
Ancient scrapings along the canyon walls – perhaps to fashion tools
Portrait of Ian Shive, taken by father, Jim Shive
Sunset over Pueblo Bonito and the enigmatic Chaco Canyon
Chaco Canyon is a wonderfully haunting location. I was fascinated by the ruins of an obviously advanced civilization existing in such a harsh, arid location.
Nice photos!