Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Since we ran out of daylight yesterday a return trip to Mesa Verde National Park was the plan for today.  The park entrance is at 7,000 feet elevation and most of the park's sites are at 7,000 feet elevation. In between, you have to climb over an 8,600 ridge with some nice switchbacks and overlook pull-outs.  Like most parks, it's a good idea to just take it slow and take in all of the sights.  

I have no idea what the geologic formation below is called, but it looked like a huge rock terrace wall.  The fractured rock seemed to be stacked nearly vertically and looked to be back-filled with dirt and rubble. 

Yesterday, the sun was setting as we got to Far View House and this needed to be explored.  There were six sites in close proximity, all with the same kind of architecture.  Each had circular kivas surrounded by small square or rectangular rooms.  The kivas were once thought to be mainly ceremonial, but they now suspect they were really equivalent to today's living room, dining room, kitchen combination.  Since they were the only room with a fire, I bet they slept in the kiva whenever it was cold as well. 

Pipe Shrine House is in the foreground.  Far View House is above in the distance.

Far View House, excavated in 1916, had more than 50 rooms and dated to 1000 A.D.

Pipe Shrine House was excavated 6 years after Far View House and contained about 20 rooms.

Pipe Shrine House was named for the decorated smoking pipes found in the kiva during excavation.

Unlike the other ruins, Coyote Village allowed closer inspection.

Coyote Village wasn't excavated until 1968 and contains about 30 ground floor rooms.

40 to 50 people probably occupied Coyote Village in 1000 A.D.

Far View Tower had 16 small, one-story rooms, 3 kivas, and a round tower.  From the amount of rubble around the tower, they believe the tower once stood as high as the surrounding trees.

We drove the Mesa Top Loop which had more stops than we could possibly see with the time we had left before sunset (bad planning on my part), so some sites did not get a lot of scrutiny.

Oak Tree House in Fewkes Canyon from the Sun Point View.

Pithouses preceded the cliff dwellings, built around 550 A.D.

Mesa Top Loop takes you to an overlook where you can see Square Tower House below (undergoing preservation work).  It has eight kivas and at least 60 rooms.

I set up to capture Cliff Palace at sunset from across the canyon. This vantage point allowed us to see a little deeper into the structure and we were able to see some buildings not visible from the overlook yesterday.  The distance and the lighting, however, left me a little disappointed with today's pictures.

Cliff Palace could be seen from the overlook at Sun Temple on the Mesa Top Loop.

The ruins were in ruins by the 1800s. The National Park Service restored it to its current height and stature.

It was only 5:30, but the sun was leaving the canyon and taking its warmth with it.

The moon had risen above the mesa.

The sun was sinking fast...

...leaving a warm glow.

We rushed to the rise where we watched the moon peak behind the little tree the day before.  It was pretty dark, but David was able to spot some deer crossing over the ridge. 

The moon graced us with its presence...

...and quickly dominated the camera's sensors.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Even though we actually did a quick tour of the Visitor's Center the day we arrived in Cortez, we did not really go into Mesa Verde National Park.

Mesa Verde Visitor and Research Center houses a research and storage facility for the park's museum and a collection of more than three million objects.

Today we went into the park to see some of the ancient pueblos. Unfortunately, Spruce House was the only cliff dwelling open this late in the year.  The tour was free and convenient (we took the 3:00 tour), so it was all good!  We gathered with everyone at the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum.  The museum had quite a collection of artifacts and very informative displays and video presentations that kept us busy while we waited for the tour to begin.

The paved trail to Spruce House descended rapidly into the canyon outside of the museum.  Ranger Lyndsey George told us it was an easy 1/4 mile there and a long 2 miles back (uphill was more work, but not really that bad since it was so short).  We were told there were more than 600 cliff dwellings within the boundaries of the park and the population was estimated to be more than 20,000 at its peak around 1,250 AD.

During the summer, ranger-led tours cost $4-$20 (to help limit numbers) for all cliff dwelling except Spruce House.

Most of the tours close after Labor Day.  Spruce House is the only tour to remain open.

Ranger Lyndsey told us the rooms go back into the overhang another 90 feet!

We learned many of the rooms were used for storage of grains and seeds.  The people stored as much as four years worth of food to keep them through difficult growing seasons.  They must have been pretty good at sealing the rooms to protect their stores from pests.

The openings are all doors that had slab coverings that fit in them (no windows).  Tiny squares held wood beams to support floors/ceilings (since rotted away).

Ranger Lyndsey considered this a very small tour group and told us, in the summer, the tours can include 50 people or more.

Metates and manos were used to grind seeds.  Stone fragments in the meal were detrimental to the Puebloan's tooth enamel (so worn away that they developed dental pain early on.)

Doorways are small, but the average male was only about 5'4".

Cliff Palace was closed for the season but could be seen from above from the Cliff Palace overlook.

Cliff Palace is Mesa Verde's largest cliff dwelling.

In the summer, they offer a Twilight Tour of Cliff Palace ($12) with rooms lit up and a Photography Tour ($20) that only allows 10 people.  That's a good reason to return before Labor Day next time.

They believe that Cliff Palace contained 150 rooms and 23 kivas (functioned as family-rooms) housing 100-120 people.

Most of the park drives closed at sunset, so we needed to head out to avoid being locked in.  The sunset colors were impossible to ignore. A nearly full moon was on the rise, so we made a lot of stops on the way for some artsy shots.

An attempted sunset shot on the go clearly went awry, but still tickled my fancy.

Monday, November 3, 2014

We drove out to Hovenweep National Monument.  It was 45 miles from Cortez, the only city of any size in the area, so I am sure they have some pretty spectacular night skies there.  In the Visitor's Center, they had a nice Celestron CPC 1100, but I missed yet another opportunity for some astronomical viewing.  The ranger said they would be getting it out next Saturday (after we planned to leave Cortez).  I rationalized I didn't miss much since there would be a nearly full moon in the sky by then. 

It was one of the few times I can remember when Sam was allowed to hike the trail with us.  With the overcast skies and a pretty good breeze, it was too cold to complete the entire Square Tower Trail, but we walked out to Square Tower and got to see everything even if some of it was on the other side of the canyon.

Hovenweep Castle is part of the Square Tower Group.

To the Utes & Paiutes, "Hovenweep" means "Deserted Valley."

The towers of Hovenweep were built by ancestral Puebloans, a sedentary farming culture that occupied the Four Corners area from about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1300.

Most of the structures at Hovenweep were built between A.D. 1200 and 1300.

Continuing on our loop, we stopped at Lowery Pueblo in the Canyons of the Ancients.  This area is a bit different in that it is administered by the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management rather than the National Park Service.  The pueblo was surrounded by farmland.  I spotted a deer crossing the road followed by a couple more.  We found we had only seen the last few of a large herd that was foraging in the undergrowth.  Joani estimated maybe 30 animals total.  

Lowrey Pueblo

We were allowed to enter some of the main structure which was now protected from the weather by a large steel canopy.  It was impossible to capture the extent of the pueblo without seeing the canopy so we enjoyed the site with a limited picture count.

We drove on gravel roads that very much reminded us of the farmland in Iowa (except for all of the irrigation equipment).  There was another smaller herd of mule deer that just stared at us when we stopped.  I'm sure they were wondering just what we were doing.  I suppose very few people take any notice of them in their day to day wanderings.

The contrast in the land struck me.  Here was rich soil while only a few miles away there was nothing but rocks and sand and occasionally, rather large mountains in the background.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

When you only spend a week in a place, it seems to go by in a flash, especially when that place is as beautiful as Canyonlands.  We were also excited to see our next spot, Mesa Verde, so that made it a little easier to say goodbye.  Joani found us a place in Cortez, Colorado, just 61.8 miles down the road (70,797.9 miles total).  This was our first foray into Colorado - we colored in another state on our travel map even though we will only see a tiny part of the state this trip.

Sundance RV Park was right on the main street in town and was one of the cleanest parks we have visited.  We stopped in the Cortez Visitor's Center (located in the park across the street from the campground) and collected information on all of the sites in the area to see, starting tomorrow, of course.

Cortez was the largest town we have been in since Provo (almost two months ago).  We were in Walmart withdrawal, so it was not much of a surprise when we left the store scratching our heads over how we could have spent so much money when we really didn't need anything.