New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, Photographing the Ancient City

In Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon,  James C. Wilson wrote a guidebook for hiking and camping in Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwestern New Mexico that the Zuñi, Hopi, Acoma and other Pueblos consider their ancestral homeland. New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: Photographing the Ancient City is intended to be a guidebook for amateur photographers wanting to photograph the canyon and its spectacular ruins. The volume offers tips on where, when, and sometimes how to photograph the ruins of the ancient stone city that dates from about 860 to 1200 A.D. Wilson takes you on a tour of the Great Houses in the canyon, including Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl (with 650 and 500 rooms respectively). Photographers will discover how images of the massive stone structures vary by angle, light, and time of day. Photographers can experiment with different lenses and camera settings, including manual and automatic, as they explore the smaller Great Houses and Casa Rinconada, the largest excavated Great Kiva in the canyon. Wilson then points out the trails of Chaco’s three mesas (North, West, and South Mesa) that connect with Chaco’s ancient road system. The various overlooks on the mesa trails provide spectacular views of the ruins and the red sandstone cliffs of the canyon. The colors of the wider landscape--subtle shades of pink, yellow, and gray--make for a landscape photographer’s dream.