Over a thousand years ago, the people of Chaco Canyon built great houses of finely laid sandstone, multi-storey buildings with hundreds of rooms and ceremonial kivas, and connected them with roads that ran straight across the desert. Kin Bineola is one of the outlying great houses, some distance south-west of the canyon, on the Navajo Nation in north-western New Mexico. Its walls still stand in places to several storeys, with the characteristic Chacoan masonry of small stones packed between larger ones. It is one piece of the World Heritage property for the Chaco Culture, together with the canyon and other outliers.
The name is Navajo, often translated as house in which the wind whirls, and the landscape around it is vast, empty and beautiful, with mesas, washes and sagebrush plains under a huge sky. The nearest town is Crownpoint, some thirty-five kilometres away, a Navajo community known for its rug auctions, where weavers sell their work directly. Chaco Canyon itself, with Pueblo Bonito and the other great houses, is a long drive north on dirt roads. The night skies here are among the darkest in the United States, and the stars are extraordinary.
Riding here is an adventure, and not for every bike. The roads to Kin Bineola are dirt, often deeply rutted, washboarded and sandy, and after rain they turn into slick mud that can be impassable. A dual-sport bike or adventure machine is the right tool; a heavy road bike is not. There are no services, no shade and often no phone signal, so carry plenty of water, fuel and tools, and tell someone your route. Summer is hot with afternoon thunderstorms; winter is cold and can bring snow.
For fuel and supplies, Crownpoint has basics, and the towns along Interstate 40, such as Thoreau and Grants, have everything. Food in Navajo country includes fry bread and Navajo tacos, mutton stew and green chile. Remember that you are on Navajo Nation land: respect local rules, stay on established roads, and do not climb on the walls or remove anything from the site. Arrive in the late afternoon if you can, when the low sun turns the stone gold and the wind, true to the name, whirls through the empty rooms.