Pueblo Alto Trail

Our second destination at Chaco Culture National Historical Park was to hike the Pueblo Alto Trail. This was abut 6 miles with 350 ft of elevation gain. The trail starts by hiking 0.3 miles down a closed road to Kin Kletso.

Some of the views as we hiked around Kin Kletso:

some petroglyphs by Kin Kletso

A look back at Kin Kletso as we continued on the trail to go up to the mesa.

The trail going up to the mesa is very steep.

And goes up through a steep slot between the mesa wall and a huge boulder.

Up on the mesa the "trail" goes past some carved holes.

Some views on this level of the mesa, before the beginning of the loop portion of the hike.

We went clockwise along the loop and came to New Alto:

Nearby was the older Pueblo Alto:

As we continued along the mesa loop, we would see many fossilized shrimp burrows in what had once been a sea floor:

Some orange colored rocks:

Across the way is the Jackson Stairway, how the ancient puebloans climbed the mesa wall.

zoom of the Jackson Stairway:

Lots of interesting rock formations on the mesa:

The trail eventually comes to a narrow split in a huge boulder, this is the trail:

A tight space!

As the loop returns along a lower level, there are areas to see the pueblos we visited earlier down below. Here is Chetro Ketl:

And Pueblo Bonito:

Another view ofKin Kletso as we returned down the trail:

some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail: