Hi Kirk and Erik,
This Chimney Rock is further north and west, on Owl Creek Pass, which connects Ridgeway with Cimarron (East of Montrose). See here: http://www.myfjcruiser.org/2061/owl-creek-pass/
It is a magnificent road for fall colors, as is the Last Dollar Road from Ridgeway to Telluride.
The climate here is too harsh to sustain rain-fed corn agriculture. Utes migrated into Colorado's mountainous regions and adapted with hunter-gatherer lifestyles. They also migrated further south, where they adapted to the horse and Spanish-Puebloan culture. Hunting parties would collect bison for exchange at Taos' trade fairs. I read somewhere that Taosenos remember a battle in which they trapped the Utes on the plain outside their Pueblo, and then forced them over the cliff, into the Rio Grande.
When mining in CO intensified, the Utes were progressively pushed out of the mountains, into SE Colorado, where their reservations, and some amazing Ancestral Puebloan sites, are today.
As for the Anasazi Chimney Rock, I sure would love to photograph that someday. I don't know what kind of access you can get.
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