Ancestral Puebloans-Part 6: Chimney Rock

tanjabrittonwriter 43 Comments

This is part 6 of a series. 

Click here for part 1 (Overview), here for part 2 (Chaco Canyon), here for part 3 (Mesa Verde), here for part 4 (Hovenweep), and here for part 5 (Bandelier).

If you have followed my blog for a while, you might remember my initial four-part series about Ancestral Puebloans from 2017 (that’s hard to believe). In 2024, I added a fifth post and here is another offering. While we haven’t visited any Ancestral Puebloan sites lately, I have been trying to work on my backlog. It is not necessary to read or re-read all previous posts before delving into this one, but if you are not familiar with the theme, I would recommend visiting Ancestral Puebloans-Part 1: Overview.

Chimney Rock had been on our wish list ever since we started exploring the Four Corners Region. For one reason or another, the site was always closed when we were in the vicinity, but in the summer of 2024, while preparing to leave for a rendezvous at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado with friends from France touring the American Southwest, I was excited to learn that Chimney Rock, located in the same corner of the state, would be open to the public (access is available only in summer and early fall and the exact dates change from year to year).

After traveling a short distance south from Colorado Highway 160 between Pagosa Springs and Durango, the aptly named landmark towering over the surrounding landscape let us know we were near.

We made the obligatory stop at the entrance to take a photo and read the park signs. Chimney Rock was declared a National Monument in 2012 (the country’s 103rd) and covers an area of 4,726 acres (1.913 hectares) inside the San Juan National Forest. Archeological evidence shows that Indigenous Peoples have been living in the region for at least 12,000 years, and between AD 925 and AD 1125, it was home to an estimated 2,000 Ancestral Puebloans (though not more than 250 people at any given point). Today, it is still considered of great significance for a number of Indigenous tribes and is surrounded by the Southern Ute Reservation.

To enlarge a photo in the gallery, click on it. To read its caption, hover cursor over it.

Sign on Colorado Highway 151
Entrance marker
Another place marker
Landscape view, with Chimney Rock on the right, Companion Rock on the left

We checked in at a kiosk with my husband’s America the Beautiful Senior Lifetime National Parks Pass (available to American citizens 62 or older), studied the map, and started our self-guided tour at the Visitor Center and adjacent amphitheater. We watched the documentary offered by the National Park Service, a must for us, as most of these films are very informative and give a great overview.

Overview of the National Monument
Visitor Center and adjacent pavilion
Interior of the Visitor Center

Then we drove the short (2.5 to 3-miles) park road to its end. From the parking lot, we hiked the 1/3-mile Great House Trail past the eponymous Ancestral Puebloan structure. Chimney Rock and Companion Rock seemed to grow in size during our approach, dominating the landscape. These two pinnacles served as important markers to Ancestral astronomers who realized that every so many years, a celestial phenomenon was observable between the formations from the Great House (and possibly from other nearby structures).

“The Chacoan style Great House is the most significant Ancestral Puebloan structure on the mesa, as well as an extraordinary engineering feat. It is one of 200 structures and 167 sites within Chimney Rock National Monument.”

Chimney Rock on the right, Companion Rock on the left
Chimney Rock on the right, Companion Rock on the left, as seen from the end of the Great House trail

From one of the park’s informational signs:

Chimney Rock is a recognized archaeoastronomy resource in Northern America that illustrates the Ancestral Puebloans’ knowledge and use of astronomy in their lives. Evidence suggests they may have adopted rituals based on celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes. An especially important astronomical event, the Northern Major Lunar Standstill, happens every 18.6 years when the moon rises between the two pinnacles as seen from the Great House.

If you had never heard of a Major Lunar Standstill, you are not alone. I won’t try to explain it, but here is a link to a Wikipedia article. According to the park’s website, the last Lunar Standstill happened in 2024 and 2025 and several viewing events were offered during those years (they did not coincide with the time of our visit). The next Northern lunar standstill will not happen again until 2044, and who knows where we will be by then.

This table lists the best times to view the moon rise between the pinnacles during the Major Lunar Standstill

After returning to the parking lot, we walked the ¼-mile Upper Mesa Village Trail past surviving structures of pit houses, aboveground rooms, and the Great Kiva, at a diameter of 40 feet the area’s largest, reading informative signs along the way.

One of the structures along the Upper Mesa Trail, plus two manos and metates

One of them reminded us that, like many of the ancient communities sprinkled across the Colorado Plateau, the ones at Chimney Rock were part of a network centered in and around Chaco Canyon, 90-as-the-crow-flies miles away in present-day New Mexico. They shared intellectual, spiritual, and economic connections, and its crucial role was acknowledged when it was made a National Historical Park in 1907, and a World Heritage Site in 1987.

The Chacoan Connection. If you aren’t familiar with Chaco Canyon, click here to read my post.

As with visits to other Ancestral Puebloan sites, the mind was boggled by the stunning as well as challenging natural setting, and by the resourcefulness of the people who made their homes here, raised their families, observed the night sky, and dreamed their dreams.

To once again echo my husband’s deferential question whenever we experience the world of these ancient civilizations: Who were these Ancestral Puebloans?

Ancestral Puebloan sites are sacred for modern-day Indigenous individuals who believe their ancestors still dwell here

43 thoughts on “Ancestral Puebloans-Part 6: Chimney Rock”

  7. Wonderful to see you feature Chimney Rock and its archaeological features, Tanja. If readers are interested learning more about the site’s status as an astronomical observatory, they might seek out the Guide to Prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest by J. McKim Malville. He was a professor at the University of Colorado who did significant research at Chimney Rock in the 1980s. https://bookshop.org/p/books/guide-to-prehistoric-astronomy-in-the-southwest-mckim-malville/7fd66f03065a00e2

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  10. Hi, there!

    What a beautiful post, and such a fascinating National Monument.

    During our summer road trip this year, we toured Mesa Verde National Park, which was a true gift! This National Monument reminded me of the park because of the similar landscape.

    I wish that we could know more than we do about the people who once lived in these areas. I think that to time-travel back for one day to see what life truly looked like for them would reveal so much. I imagine it would especially show the advancement of humanity over the years!

    Again, I really enjoyed your post, and I thank you for sharing it!

    Blessings,

    Gavin B.

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    • Hi Gavin,

      Thank you for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed my post.

      How exciting that you were able to visit Mesa Verde NP. It’s much larger than this National Monument but, as you observed, the landscape is similar, as both are located in southwestern Colorado.

      If you would like to see my post about Mesa Verde, here is a link:

      Ancestral Puebloans-Part 3: Mesa Verde – tanja britton

      I agree that traveling back one thousand-plus years would be quite fascinating. But since we can’t, it’s intriguing to imagine what live would have been like for them.

      Happy time-travel in our minds.

      Tanja

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  12. Very interesting post, Tanja. There’s so much in the American Southwest. Incredible landforms and history. I’ve only been to Chaco, but would like to visit Mesa Verde and Chimney Rock–as well as others. Thanks for this informative post!

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  15. I needed this today! The fact that the remains of the “Great House” still sit there stoic, in the face of every thing going on in the world today, gives me hope. I can only imagine how special it must have been for the Pueblo people who lived there, to see the moon rising between the two rock pinnacles. 😍

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  16. How wonderful that you were able to visit such a historical and quite mystical site! I especially enjoyed your photos. Although I’ve never traveled to the Four Corners area, I’m a Tony Hillerman fan, and your post helps me understand those stories even more.

    I’ve been reading Professor Alice Roberts’ books on archeology, and I find it fascinating that recently we have learned quite a bit more about ancient cultures due to improvements in scientific research.

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    • Thank you, Julie.
      I, too, like Tony Hillerman’s stories. Never met him, but his daughter, Annr, once was the keynote speaker at a local literary event and we got to hear and see her. I have read a few of her novels and think she has done an amazing job taking her father’s stories and developing them with her own touches while honoring his ideas.

      I’m not familiar with Alice Robert but after reading a short online bio, would like to learn more about her and her works! Thank you for mentioning her.

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  17. I’d never heard the term “Northern Major Lunar Standstill,” but my first thought was that it might be akin to the solstices. The word ‘solstice’ is derived from Latin solstitium: a combination of ‘sun’ (sol) and ‘a stoppage’ (stitium). According to some very old legends, both the sun and the earth ‘stop’ at the solstice, before both turn, and move, and begin their journeys again. I was at Stonehenge for the winter solstice one year; I’d love to be here for a lunar ‘standstill.’

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