Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado, was established in 2012 on San Juan National Forest land surrounded by the Ute Reservation. Its twin rock spires high on a ridge inspired the name, but the monument protects several sites of ancient Puebloan ruins built by the Chaco people.

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View of Chimney Rock and the larger Companion Rock from Great House Pueblo

Our Visit. My family visited Chimney Rock in July while driving through on a road trip from Colorado Springs to Phoenix, Arizona

Our Weather. Sunny and hot in the low-90s

Overall Impression. While I’ve been to many ancient ruins in the four-corners states, none are set in so beautiful a setting as Chimney Rock. Despite its “National Monument” status, Chimney Rock is managed by the US Forest Service instead of the National Park Service, and access to the best parts of the monument is restricted to guided tours. Even so, those willing to work within the confines of the tours are rewarded with sites of great interest and views of incredible beauty!

Visiting. Exploring Chimney Rock requires at least 90 minutes, but three hours is a better plan. It’s only open for limited hours between May and September, so check the official website before you go to make sure they’ll be open and to check tour times. While the site is of decent size, the monument is really just a visitor hut (too small to call it a center), a windy gravel road, and a couple of trails atop the ridge that holds both the Chimney Rock formations and the ruins sites. If you only have a limited time, you can buy a self-guided “audio tour” that allows you to drive (or ride) to the top of the ridge and hike the well-paved, 1/2 mile Kiva Trail with great views and access to some smaller ruins including a house and the Great Kiva (a round room which probably served as a center of religious and social events).

The ruin of the Great Kiva is the highlight of the Kiva Trail

The road to the top is steep, but a two-wheel drive car should be able to handle it, though be prepared for a bumpy ride due to all the washboarding on the road. Once you reach the parking lot at the top, you can check out an audio device for the Kiva Audio Tour. The audio tour is pretty good and informative, though it requires you to hold it to your ear while walking to different markers along the trail. The Kiva Trail offers great views of the surrounding landscape but not of Chimney Rock itself; however, you can hike back down the road a bit to get a good view of the formations.

Our tour climbing into the Great House Pueblo with Chimney Rock in the background

To really get the most out of your visit, it’s worth the extra few dollars per person and time to join a one- or two-hour guided tour to the Great House Pueblo. We did a one-hour tour which allowed us to hike the Kiva Trail on our own before the Guided Walking Tour began. The tours meet at the parking lot before ascending the 1/3 mile Pueblo Trail toward Chimney Rock. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and pointed out many facets of the ruins we never would have caught on our own. He also told us about the best theories to explain why these people built houses and kivas on top of a ridge far from water and sources of food. It’s likely the Great House Pueblo was a house or “hotel” for elites and used during certain astronomical alignments such as the moon or sun rising between the two rock formations. The hike was steep and narrow in places, but I felt safe with children, and the guide stopped several times to allow everyone to catch their breath. At the top, we were rewarded not only with the chance to explore the ruins but with a commanding view of the San Juan mountains, surrounding mesas and valleys, and Chimney Rock. It’s a really cool place!

The Pueblo Trail is steep in places but manageable for most casual hikers

Suggestions. Because the best things at the monument are based on tours, be sure to check the tour times before you come. There is no entry fee, but even the self-guided tours have a per-person cost, and your park pass is only good for a discount. The tours aren’t cheap, but they’re not much more than you would spend to go to a movie and so much better!

There is little shade atop the ridge, so for anything more than a quick Kiva tour, bring sunscreen and water (no food or drinks besides water are allowed on the trail). This is also Colorado, and the weather is unpredictable. During the course of our tour, we watched a small cloud on the horizon turn into a major thundercloud that just narrowly missed us but probably rained on the next tour.

Our “one hour” tour actually stretched into closer to two hours. I attribute this to the wealth of knowledge our tour guide shared and the questions from the group, but don’t be surprised if you’re not back when you expected to be. We had to leave our tour a little early (at the 90 minute mark) to get back on the road, and it didn’t seem to be a problem to hike back down ourselves after checking with the tour guide.

Nearby Towns Pagosa Springs, Durango (Colorado)

Other Nearby Attractions Aztec Ruins NM, Mesa Verde NP

Official Website Chimney Rock National Monument

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