Chaco Canyon was fascinating! However, the 21-mile dirt road leading away south of Chaco Canyon was rough. We drove a passenger car but would recommend a 4-wheel drive. Still, it was worth the drive!

Yes, the drive to Chaco is long and, towards the end, on a dirt road. But who cares? Chaco is an expansive archaelogical site that allows you actually walk on the same paths as those who created it. It truly is an interactive experience where you can spend us much or as little time as you wish as you drive deeper in the park. We partook of the Park guide who was extremely knowledgeable and who helped fill in a lot of missing information.

We had a wonderful tour of Chaco Canyon with the Director of the Salmon Ruin Museum Tori Myers. She had a wealth of knowledge to share about the site and really made it come alive. She conveyed —to the best of current knowledge—how the Chaco pueblos developed, spread in the area, building techniques and where their materials came from, how rooms were used, their agriculture, how they aligned buildings with sun and moon cycles, etc. We obtained so much deeper an understanding than if we had just driven to the ruins and walked through them. Highly recommend. You can reach her at Salmonruins.education@gmail.com.

Great park off the beaten path. Don’t let the dirt road discourage you from making the visit. Staff were knowledgeable and helpful. Only disappointment is the museum. Issues with building and no planned date to fix it.

Not too strenuous for a 70-year-old, but bring water & wear sunscreen/hat. My young grandchildren (9 and 13) were pretty impressed, too. Makes me wonder what structures built by current mankind will still be standing in 1,000 years! (As everyone says, the last part of the road to get there is rough!)

Chaco Canyon is a must-visit historic site in the U.S., offering a glimpse of the genius of the Ancient Puebloans. Ideally, those interested in the Chaco Culture should visit this New Mexico site first, then travel to Colorado and visit the Canyon of the Ancients and Mesa Verde in that order. Arranging a tour of Chaco with Navajotours is also highly recommended. Our guide, Kialo, brought the story of these ancient people to life and explained the intricate alignment of the buildings with the sun, moon, and other Chaco communities.

My 4 stars rating instead of 5 has nothing to do with the amazing, enthralling site. The park website is fantastic and it lead us to believe there would be ranger guided tours to each of the ruins, but we got deer-in-the-headlight looks from the employees. Also, there are no flyers nor maps provided of the walking trails nor the parking spots to take the short walks. We were told we could take a picture with our cell phone cameras of a map on the Visitor Center's wall~ The built up anticipation for informative tours to tell us about different site histories fell short, but we were able (with help from people at the Campground area) to find our way to walk one of the ruins and even just one made the horrible drive in worth it. We will return next year so we create a better experience for ourselves. We learned from some other visitors that there is an informative film to watch in the Visitors Center that is helpful in order to navigate the different sites and so I recommend that because getting interest and help from the Visitor Center employees was lacklustre, at least for us. BEWARE: Without AWD or 4WD, we were not able to go more than 9 mph along the uneven, choppy and sometimes deeply graded road. It took us just under 2 hrs drive from the paved road into the Visitor Center area. There is minimal signage once you turn off the highway. At the Visitor Center, there is a one-way road that leads to most of the parking lots for the ruins, and then it loops back towards the Visitor Center and the road leading out to hwy 40. The other direction from the Visitor Center will take you to the Park Campground, and beyond that, there is no GPS reception and no signs posted to let you know you are NOT anywhere near the ruins. Like other reviews, we definitely suggest wearing at hat, a wide brimmed hat, and have a knapsack with some water and snacks. Hands free made sense to us so we could balance, crouch, and stoop to best experience interior rooms, narrow parts of walk paths and steps.