Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway
featuring Mesa Verde & Chaco Culture National Parks
October 8 – 11, 2024
$899 (Double Occupancy) +$219 (Single Supplement)

The Trail of the Ancients is a modern-day drive that connects the migration routes of America’s first peoples—the Ancestral Puebloans—who occupied a vast region of the American Southwest for over 2,000 years. The only National Scenic Byway that was designated primarily for its archaeological sites, the trail passes through some of the southwest’s most protected places. With no particular right or wrong way to explore this multi-state trail—which the Federal Highway Administration says is 480 miles in total—we’ve planned a route that takes us through the trail’s most iconic sites, including Mesa Verde and Chaco Culture National Parks.

Day One: We’ll leave the Valley headed for Farmington, New Mexico, enjoying plenty of pitstops along the way, including a stop for lunch, on self, at the Painted Desert Diner at Petrified Forest National Park. Late afternoon, we’ll check into the Holiday Inn Express, and after a refresh, we’ll head out to enjoy a festive Welcome Dinner, included.

Day Two: Breakfast is included at the hotel. Back in the Transits we’re headed for Chaco Culture National Park. Chaco Canyon is home to the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States. Between A.D. 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 19th century. Many Chacoan buildings may have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. Climate change is thought to have led to the emigration of Chacoans and the eventual abandonment of the canyon, beginning with a fifty-year drought commencing in 1130. Chaco Canyon is a World Heritage Site and considered sacred ancestral homelands by the Hopi and Pueblo people, who maintain oral accounts of their historical migration from Chaco and their spiritual relationship to the land. We’ll enjoy a picnic lunch, included, while exploring Chaco Canyon. Late afternoon we’ll head back to our hotel, and after a refresh we’ll gather for our own Happy Hour, included, before heading out to enjoy dinner on self.

Day Three: Breakfast is included at the hotel. Back in the Transits we’re headed for Mesa Verde National Park. For over 700 years, the Ancestral Pueblo people built thriving communities on the mesas and in the cliffs of Mesa Verde. Today, the park protects the rich cultural heritage of 27 Pueblos and Tribes and offers visitors a spectacular window into the past. This World Heritage Site and International Dark Sky Park is home to over a thousand species, including several that live nowhere else on earth. Early afternoon we’ll travel to historic Durango, Colorado, where we’ll enjoy lunch, on self, with several wonderful restaurants to choose from. Later we’ll visit Aztec Ruins National Monument, a Chaco Canyon outlier, home to some of the best-preserved Chacoan structures of its kind. We’ll learn about the ancestral Pueblo people in the park’s museum and explore the Aztec West great house to see exceptionally advanced architecture, original wooden beams, and a restored Great Kiva. Aztec Ruins is a deeply sacred place to many Indigenous peoples across the American Southwest. Early evening we’ll return to our hotel, and after a refresh we’ll gather for our own Happy Hour, included, before heading out to enjoy dinner on self.

Day Four: Breakfast is included at the hotel, then it’s bags out and we’re headed for home. We’ll enjoy plenty of great sightseeing along the way, as well as a stop for lunch, on self, at the fabulous La Posada Hotel—the last of the great railroad hotels. The La Posada is home to the award winning Turquoise Room—said to be the best restaurant in the Four Corners region—offering an affordable lunch menu that features regional contemporary Southwestern Cuisine, with an occasional tribute to the great days of the Fred Harvey Company. We’re revving up our engines for this remarkable road trip and we’re hoping you’ll join us!

Would you like to know more? We recommend The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, available free on Prime Video. Narrated by Robert Redford, this documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, describing and demonstrating the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. These alignments, along with other evidence, support the theory that Chaco Canyon was a major ceremonial center. Is this America’s Stonehenge?

Note to KT Book Clubbies: This is Hillerman Country!

Scottsdale:
La Quinta Inn & Suites
8888 E Shea Blvd
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

The Scottsdale pickup location can be easily reached via AZ 101/Pima Freeway. Exit the freeway at Shea. The La Quinta Hotel is located at the northeast corner of AZ 101 and Shea Blvd.

Mesa:
Mesa Doubletree Hotel
1011 W. Holmes Ave
Mesa, AZ 85210

This is the Fiesta Mall region, and the Hilton Hotel is easily viewed from the U.S. 60/Superstition Freeway. Exit the freeway at Alma School and head east to Holmes. Park and wait for the bus at the west end of the hotel parking lot.