Chaco Culture National Historic Park

March 24th -26th, 2023 Friday-Sunday

$549 (Based Upon Double Occupancy) $112 (Single Supplement)

Day One: We’ll head towards Payson with a stop for coffee and goodies, on our way to Heber for lunch on self at the award-winning Red Onion Restaurant, where the affordable menu offers something for everyone. Back in the Transits, we’ll journey to Farmington, New Mexico, where we’ll check into our hotel our headquarters for the next two nights. We’ll take some time for a refresh before gathering for our own Happy Hour, followed by a New Mexican-style Welcome Dinner at Los Hermanito’s, included.

Day Two: We’ll enjoy breakfast, included at the hotel, then it’s back in the Transits, headed for Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Chaco Canyon is home to the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States. Between A.D. 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 19th century. Many Chacoan buildings may have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. Climate change is thought to have led to the emigration of Chacoans and the eventual abandonment of the canyon, beginning with a fifty-year drought commencing in 1130. Chaco Canyon is a World Heritage Site and considered sacred ancestral homelands by the Hopi and Pueblo people, who maintain oral accounts of their historical migration from Chaco and their spiritual relationship to the land. Additionally, it is one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways. We’ll enjoy a picnic lunch, included, while exploring Chaco Canyon. Late afternoon we’ll head back to our hotel, and after a refresh we’ll again gather for our own Happy Hour, included, before heading out to enjoy dinner on self.

Day Three: We’ll enjoy breakfast at the hotel, included, and then it’s bags out and we’re headed for home, enjoying plenty of great sightseeing along the way, as well as a stop for lunch on self at the award-winning Turquoise Room at the historic La Posada Hotel. Considered to be the finest restaurant in the Four Corners Region, the Turquoise Room offers a fabulous and affordable lunch menu, reflecting the unique flavors of the Southwest. This Kindred Tours Annual Trek should be on everyone’s bucket list!

Would you like to know more? We recommend The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, available free on Prime Video. Narrated by Robert Redford, this documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, describing and demonstrating the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. These alignments, along with other evidence, support the theory that Chaco Canyon was a major ceremonial center. Is this America’s Stonehenge?