North of Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans built something that still puzzles archaeologists: a road. Not a trail, but a wide, carefully engineered path, about nine metres wide in places, running almost dead straight north across the desert for some fifty kilometres. It is known as the Great North Road, and Pierre's site sits right on it. This is a cluster of small structures built on and around a prominent sandstone outcrop, including what may have been signalling stations or shrines on top of the hill, and from its height you can see far across the San Juan Basin. Like Kin Ya'a to the south, it is protected as one of the Chaco outliers on the World Heritage list.
Why the road went north, to an empty canyon edge at Kutz Canyon, is the mystery. Some archaeologists think it had a symbolic or religious purpose, connecting Chaco to a sacred direction or to the place of origin in Puebloan tradition, rather than being a practical trade route. Seen from the air or in low light, its faint line across the land is still visible. Twin Angels, another small Chacoan site, lies nearby.
The country here is badlands and mesas, grey and buff clay hills eroded into strange shapes, sagebrush flats and wide horizons. It looks barren, but in spring there are wildflowers, and at any time of year you may see pronghorn, coyotes and hawks. The weather is extreme: hot in summer, cold in winter, with sudden storms and strong winds.
Access is by dirt roads off US 550, the highway between Cuba and Bloomfield, and they become impassable when wet. This is Bureau of Land Management land, but there are no facilities at the site and very few signs; a GPS track, local advice and plenty of water are essential. Do not climb on structures or remove anything. For fuel, food and accommodation, Bloomfield, Aztec and Farmington to the north are the closest towns, and Aztec has its own impressive Chacoan great house at Aztec Ruins National Monument, inscribed together with Chaco itself. US 550 itself is a good, fast road across the high desert, with wide curves and little traffic outside the towns.