Our Trip to Chaco Canyon

The canyons quickly humbled me, as the giant rocks, the open fields, and the open sky hovered over everyone and everything. I began to feel cold and meek, which disturbed me, because I suddenly didn’t feel as powerful with a roaming smartphone and a light jacket, as well as being outside of society. I could easily see why the people whom filled the lands, hundreds of years before our field trip, respected their environment so much. Mother nature seemed to be the key element to life and survival out in Chaco Canyon.

My favorite part of the trip was when we got to travel in and out of the ruins. Besides our class, we seemed to be in a group of older and educated people. These older people seemed to know some information about the area, and they would usually ask intelligent questions on the architecture of the buildings, or questions on what the people traded. The park ranger who answered these questions was very surprising. I figured that she would only speak of the geology of the area, since she was a geologist. But, the young woman knew facts, such as the agriculture of the people; the history after the natives left; turquoise as the people’s currency, all the way down to the pottery that contained chocolate that the people would trade for. She was like a human-computer, and very informative.

I learned a lot of about the area, and the people that once live in the area in our field trip. The trip was my first learning experience outside of the classroom, and I never got the feeling that our trip was part of a school activity. The trip felt like mini vacation, I was glad that I got to know my classmates, Professor Kells and her family, and myself a little more on our trip.