Chimney Rock

Archuleta County

The Chimney Rock Interpretive Association (CRIA) is a not-for-profit organization that operates all interpretive programs at Chimney Rock National Monument, which is located between Pagosa Springs and Durango. With the help of its 80-plus volunteers, CRIA offers daily 2½ hour walking tours between May 15 and September 30 to approximately 11,000 visitors each year.

Visitors tour the Chaco-style great house, great kiva, and surrounding community, which was home to more than 2,000 Ancestral Puebloan people. They learn how Chimney Rock operated as a lunar astronomical observatory and the site’s role in the Chaco regional system, which was preeminent in the ancestral Pueblo world between 900 and 1100 CE.

Other CRIA programs include pottery workshops, night sky programs and Native American cultural gatherings. CRIA operates under a participating agreement with the San Juan National Forest and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.