A Walk With Ancients

[BD]

A Tight Squeeze

Today’s journey is a two mile climb to the top of South Mesa to visit the unexcavated Tsin Kletzin Great House ruins.  A fun slick-rock climb with awesome views of the valley below.  Weather was perfect at sunny 60-70 deg with a brisk breeze.

Again, only 4 others were seen on the entire trip.  For most of the time the mesa-top was ours alone.

The Approach to Zin Kletsin

The highlight of the hike was the ruins themselves.  Many of the sites down on the valley floor have been partially excavated to reveal the intricacies of the architecture of the buildings.  Tsin Kletsin is in the original condition as when first surveyed in the early 1900’s.  It presents you with a much more thought provoking scene of 1,000 years of undisturbed antiquity.

The Un-Excavated Site

A bit of poking around in the surrounding sage brush revealed even more intimate evidence of a long lost civilization.  Hundreds, and probably thousands of small sherds of pottery scattered about.  Many intricately painted or textured.  It takes a ton of restraint not to pocket a few of the nicer examples, but aside from the several thousand dollar fine, it would seem wrong to remove even a small piece of history from such a place.

To hold a sherd is like shaking hands with the artist.

Good night again from Chaco