Tuesday, June 7
Over the river and through the woods! That's how today felt. We left Aurora on I-25 this morning at 9 a.m. and arrived at an RV park outside of Mesa Verde at 5:30 p.m. Now we remember why we don't do this on a steady basis. Our butts were t i r e d!
The drive south as far as Colorado Springs was nice. Lots of trees and mountains. After that, though, it was pretty boring until we hit Hwy 160 and turned west. Talk about mountain passes! Holy crap! The first one is called La Veta pass. Altitude at the summit? 9,413 feet of winding steep inclines! At that summit, we had to stop and give the truck a breather. That's the second time it's overheated in the seven years we've owned it, so you know this was a nasty pass. Very pretty in all of its greenery, but holy crap!
The second pass is called Wolf Creek pass. With a summit of 10,850 feet, it makes La Veta look like a piker! The good news is, we started out at about 8,000 feet. ;=) We were happy we had gone from east to west especially on this one. The truck had a better time making it to the summit, but going down was a real challenge. With 8% downgrade for 7 miles and 7% downgrade for 5 miles or something after the summit, the brakes got a workout. This wasn't only a winding road, it had switchbacks! Yikes! Beautiful trees and rock formations were everywhere on this pass.
Bruce, with help from the Lord, brought us down safely to Pagosa Springs and beyond. Whatta beautiful valley! And it extended for miles and miles. Spectacular part of the country. If we were many years younger, we could live there. Fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, four-wheeling, skiing, biking and all kinds of other sports are available within walking distance!
This is Chimney rock on the left and there wasn't a name for the one on the right. Have you ever wondered how many Chimney rocks there are in the world? LOL They were right above us as we took a potty break and gave the brakes a break after coming down off the pass. No, we didn't have to change our shorts, but holy crap! We won't forget that pass for a long time!
We safely reached our destination for the next few days and set up in a very nice RV park called, oddly enough, Mesa Verde RV park. ;=) It was located very close to the entrance of the park.
Wednesday, June 8
Off we went to explore a park we had long been wanting to visit, Mesa Verde national park.
Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.
The drive up to the entrance is exciting in itself! The road is winding and has beautiful views. We stopped at many of the pullouts to take in the sight of the mountains and valley below. Some of the fields had been harvested and turned under, which gave the appearance of a patchwork quilt. Gorgeous area!
At one stop, this little Western tanager was singing his heart out and flitting from tree to tree.
Further up the line, the snow-capped La Plata (silver) mountains were shining bright! We just came through there!
Spring flowers had decided it was time to pop out, and they were everywhere! Gorgeous!
Our first day was spent exploring the Chapin mesa. This is where most of the ruins are, though we didn't know it at the time. Phenomenal! We had no idea what to expect and had our socks knocked off by the sites.
Far View: An Ancient Farming Community
Far View was a popular place in the early days at Mesa Verde. From A>D> 900 to about 1300, it was one of the most densely populated parts of the mesa. Nearly 50 villages have been identified within a half-square mile area, home to hundreds of people. The attraction may have been the greater moisture received at this higher elevation of about 7,700 feet.
Far View House in the background and
Pipe House in the foregroundFar View House had 40 rooms on the ground floor and an unknown number of rooms in the second story.
Pipe Shrine House was named for a dozen decorated clay pipes that Fewkes found on the floor of the large kiva (the round hole in the foreground here) when he excavated in 1922.
A petroglyph found on the Far View House
This means something to do with family if memory serves correctly.
Mummy Lake is believed to be a reservoir for the Far View villagers.
Thick walls surrounded the 12' deep reservoir at one time.
Look closely, and you can see steps into the reservoir for water carriers at the back on the left.
On the right are intake channels to direct water into the reservoir.
There were remnants of a tower close to Mummy Lake, and this boy was poking his head through what used to be the doorway. You can imagine the size of the doorways from the size of this boy.
Megalithic House, A.D. 1200s
Two large stones, or "megaliths," were set on edge as part of the foundation of this small house. When Jesse Walter Fewkes excavated the site in 1922, he called them "Cyclopean walls" ...
We're used to seeing these plants in the desert, but at 8,000'? Beautiful!
Cliff Palace, the largest site in the park. Imagine the work it took to build this structure. You can see people taking the walking (and climbing!) tour of the palace. Compare size of modern man with the size of the natives at the time and how much time they must have put in to build this place. According to the signs, cliff habitation took place the last 75-100 years of their habitation of what is now the park. That's a lot of work! And to think so many families lived under basically one roof. Wow!
The stained rock is called "desert varnish" according to a tour we took elsewhere. It's caused by runoff. We know springs below the structures supplied water to build the bricks, but could this runoff have also supplied the village with water?
Click here to read about it.
This is a close-up of the middle section of the Cliff Palace. Amazing is all we kept saying!
Hemenway House
Mary Tileston Hemenway financially supported the first archeological research in the southwest. In 1907 Edgar L. Hewett, then an archealogist for the Archeological Institute of America, proposed naming this Soda Canyon cliff dwelling in her honor. Although Mary Hemenway never visited Mesa Verde, this site memorializes her contribution to our understanding of the Ancestral Puebloans.
A dead tree providing support for little ink flowers. And life continues.
This is one of them tunnels through which the natives crawled to get to their Kiva. It's tiny!
Pit House
As the Anasazi settled more and more into a farming lifestyle, they built permanent pithouse dwellings. Pithouses could take any shape but basically, 4 strong upright posts were crossed with ceiling joists and overlaid with a lattice of brush, thin poles and a bark or grass matting. Quite often they would place a sod-like covering over the top for extra insulation and protection from the elements.
In this picture, you can see twigs and possible branches used in the construction.
Back to the cliff dwellings, this shows the two-story concept of the dwellings.
The top layer was often used for storage.
To prove that we saw a Black bear on our way out. ;-) Nice big bear!
Thursday, June 9
Today's route was to take the Wetherill mesa. Our first stop was Park Point Overlook. The elevation at location was 8,572'. Where's the oxygen?! Had it not been for smoke from fires in Arizona and Colorado, we could have seen four states from the top.
Legend of the Sleeping Ute:
Legend has it that this is a Great Warrior God who had come to help fight against evil ones causing much trouble. A great battle ensued, and the Warrior God was hurt, so he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. Look carefully at the mountain and you will see him; his head points toward the north, his arms are folded across his chest; his stomach, thighs, knees, feet (even toes) are all clearly visible. When fog or clouds settle over the sleeping Warrior God, it is a sign that he is changing his blankets for the season. A light green blanket heralds spring; the dark green bring summer. Yellow and red are fall colors and white is winter. When clouds gather on the highest peak, he is letting rain slip from his pockets. One day, the Utes believe, the Great Warrior God will rise again to help his people fight against their enemies.
This was taken from Park Point and is a formation known as Ship rock in the center of this picture. The rock is obscured by smoke in this shot, which is what we were trying to share - how thick the smoke was. We could smell smoke in the park and when we got back to the trailer that night, and we were glad we were leaving in the morning before it got thicker.
We took the "tram" at the end of the road. It was a shuttle in our lingo. We drove around and were dropped off at the Badger House Community, a group of pithouses.
Can you imagine five families living together in this? It curves around as far as the last person on the left. Then, there's a big room for gatherings and a kiva that goes with it. Five freakin' families?! Look how small the "rooms" are. How/where did they sleep, go to the bathroom, make puppies, etc.? Can't imagine.
The double-wall construction shows occupation of two different time periods.
In this kiva, you can see at the back where the fireplace was. Below that is a hole for ventilation and behind the fireplace is the vent for the fireplace. Their ingenuity is awesome!
Kiva is a Hopi word meaning “ceremonial room.” Kivas were important ceremonial gathering places in the life of Ancestral Puebloans – comparable to the churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques of today. It appears that every clan (made up of the extended family) had its own kiva for use during ceremonies and other social events. Kivas were also used as sleeping areas, so served a multi-use concept.
Notice the small hole near the firepit? This is the Sipapu, a Hopi word for “place of emergence.” According to Hopi oral tradition, this hole represents the place where Ancestral Puebloan people emerged from the previous world to this one. Much like the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, Hopis believe that the world before this one was destroyed, but a few chosen people were saved. Climbing a ladder up out of the smoky kiva and through the roof into the courtyard after ceremonies may have served as a powerful reminder of their salvation from the world before.
On the other side of the kiva is a tunnel that runs into other parts of the village. As you look at pictures of ruins, you'll see that entrances are small, narrow and above ground level. We were told at another park that the natives did this to give them the advantage over intruders. The intruders have to kneel down and come in head first; thus, giving the occupants an opportunity to attack them. Pretty good thinking, huh? My back hurts just thinking about crawling around like this. LOL
The site of these horses was at first pleasing. We had seen hoof prints and thought maybe rangers were riding through the park to make sure there's no illegal activity or something. Maybe these are the horses. But wait - there are no fenced corrals and surely they wouldn't allow the horses to roam freely. Their tails and manes have been groomed at some point, and they weren't too afraid of us.
Hmmm .... When our shuttle driver came to pick us up, we asked about the horses. He gave us an answer that sent Geri sideways! The horses are owned by the Ute Indians. The tribe has allowed the horses to roam free for the past couple of years without the government's permission. This is a national park! How can that happen? Last year there were 15 horses and 3 foals. This year there are 30 horses and 9 foals! They are destroying the ruins and leaving their piles all over the paths, as well as everywhere else!
When Geri asked the driver what was being done about it, he said the government can't decide how to handle it. Say what?!
The Kodak House, there are about 60 rooms in this two-story building.
Long House, the second largest site in the park.
Oak Tree House
As an example of how they moved between levels, you can see finger and toe holds from the lower level to the upper.
There was also a ladder involved. Looks scary to me!
As we said wildflowers were blooming all over the park in so many beautiful colors. At least there's spring in that part of the world! It's still winter in the Pacific Northwest.
And thus ends our visit to Mesa Verde. We had a great time! The weather was sunny and warm but breezy and downright windy at times. Smoke from distant fires filled our sinuses at we returned to the trailer to pack up and get ready to leave in the morning, but we left the park with more questions than answers. What drove the Ancestral Puebloans south? The same pottery has been found in Arizona as was found here in this park. Had there been a drought and they heard about a mighty river? Or was their leader deranged or did they blend into another group or ... we'll probably never know.
Did You Know?
Descendants of Mesa Verde Ancestral Puebloans include the Hopi in Arizona, and the 19 Rio Grande pueblos of New Mexico: Taos, Picuris, Sandia, Isleta, San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe, Tesuque, Jemez, Cochiti, Pojoaque, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Zia, Laguna, Acoma, and Zuni.
