After viewing Pueblo Bonito from the overlook, we hiked away from the rim up to Pueblo Alto. Pueblo Alto is where the roads coming in from the north terminate. All the pilgrims from Anasazi communities to the north would have come down these roads to participate in the religious rites and trading that took place, they believe, at regular intervals at Chaco Canyon.

We walked out the North Road a bit to an unexcavated ruin called Rabbit Run. Here's the view from that road looking back toward the ruins of Pueblo Alto. There was no one else around at this point and we only saw three other hikers on top of the mesa.

Chaco Canyon ancient potsherds
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Of the couple of dozen shreds we found along the roadway, this was the best. It was about 2" on a side and still had lots of the design. We could tell from the shape (convex or concave) whether a sherd was from a bowl decorated on the inside or a jar decorated on the outside. The dark areas were painted on by the artisan using a yucca fiber brush before the pot was fired. For me finding and handling these sherds gave me a stong feeling of kinship to these ancient people and their daily lives. Naturally they don't want you to remove these sherds from the park so, as much as I wanted to keep one or two, we tossed them back for others to enjoy and hopefully leave behind as well.

Our first glimpse of the Jackson Stairs.

Jackson Staircase - Chaco Canyon
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