In July 2023 my son and I spent a week in Durango, CO doing all the fun summer stuff we could including rafting down the Animas river, riding the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge train, a tour of Mesa Verde National Park and a visit to Chimney Rock National Monument. Chimney Rock is only about an hour drive from Durango.
Visiting Chimney Rock National Monument in southwestern Colorado was like stepping into a portal that connected earth, sky, and the ancient humans that once occupied that land. As we hiked the ridge trail that winds up to the base of the two towering rock pinnacles—Chimney Rock and Companion Rock—I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty and significance of this unique spot.
The landscape stretched wide in every direction, with the San Juan Mountains rising in the distance and the valley below. I could easily make out Peterson’s ridge or mesa across the way from the great house where I was told there were even more kivas and ruins. But what moved me most was not just the natural beauty—it was the knowledge that this was once a place of profound astronomical observation and ceremonial importance for the ancestral Puebloans over a thousand years ago.
Standing on that high ground, I learned how the people who lived here built structures and aligned them with cardinal points and astronomical events. Most striking was the alignment with the major lunar standstill, a rare event that occurs roughly every 18.6 years. From a specific vantage point at the Great House Pueblo, the moon rises precisely between Chimney Rock and Companion Rock during this event—a phenomenon that must have been deeply significant to them. It’s amazing to think that they observed and tracked the cycles of the moon with such precision, incorporating that knowledge into their architecture, ceremonies, and culture.
The deeper I explored the site and its history, the more I appreciated how attuned these people were to the rhythms of the cosmos. This wasn’t just a village or a ceremonial site—it was an observatory built into the land itself. To witness the same skies, the same rock formations, and to walk among their ruins was both humbling and inspiring. Chimney Rock reminded me that long before telescopes and digital star charts, humans were already charting the heavens and weaving that knowledge into the heart of their culture.