Wild West Day 18 October 8

A “wow” day for sure. The Mesa Verde National Park. As we're still absorbing what we learned and saw, you might want to rely on Wikipedia or other web sources for backgrounds on the park and on Ancient Pueblo Peoples. It could help.

It was a cold morning, but fortunately no frozen pipes, so we head off early to the park. We spent six hours there doing the “free” stuff and absorbing as much as we could. It's best to let the pictures tell some of our stories.

The road in had beautiful sites of the surrounding mountains and mesas (table mountains...high points with flat tops; in the case of the Pueblo Peoples, these tops were used for farming corn, squash and beans and the cliffs beneath the tops were used for their pueblos or villages; amazing):

We even saw a coyote!

Our first and long stop was at the Spruce Tree House. Take a look:

David even climbed below for this shot.

I even made an inukshuk to join many others there. And I found an old bone:

We made a quick stop in the museum:

We took the Mesa Top Loop Trail and viewed The Square Tower House:

then some Pithouses and Villages:

The Sun Point View was amazing with its 12 dwellings, some one above the other. We think we saw with our own eyes (and cameras) all 12. These continue to be almost unreal. But they're REAL. It's awe inspiring:

On our return, we stopped at the Far View Sites, part of ancient villages that were highly populated at one time:

It's amazing that the Mesa Verde Pueblos were chanced upon by the Wetherill's, a ranching family. They kept things “sacred” and they remained so until Nordenskiold, a Swedish archeologist, studied the site AND took back to Sweden most of the artifacts found, the rat.

We went up the Park Point Overlook and were able to see many miles in the distance AND enjoy the mountains and mesas around us (great bookends for the trip).

An interesting modern find there was the Fire Lookout station, restored from the 1939 original and at the highest point in the park (about 8,600 feet and more than 2,000 feet higher than out campground).

A wow day and we returned to La Mesa RV Park (thus no new view from my chair) and ate leftover Mexican and recovered from a wonderful day.

Wild West Day 17 October 7

Another good sleep and a cold but sunny morning on the Colorado River.

As we head towards Cortez, Colorado, we keep hearing about snow storms in the La Sal Mountains and the town of Monticello, which we were going to be travelling through. But, you never know!

We passed Hole in the Rock (a couple built a house in a natural hole in a cliff in the 30's and 40's, and it's a bit of a tourist draw) and saw “Mount Fuji” (well, that's what it looks like) in all its splendour.

We saw Wilson Arch, the final look at a Utah Arch this trip.

I finally saw a badger near Monticello (hadn't ever seen one). A sign heading in to that town was for “San Juan Hospital: A Cut Above the Rest” and the photo was of a surgery room. Yuck.

No snow as we headed for Cassie's 21^st state, Colorado!

A couple of interesting signs: “ATM...Pinto Beans...24 Hours” (in Dove Creek) and the town Cahone (Cajones...you decide!).

Snow and sleet and cold began and we stopped at a cheap, urban RV park (La Mesa) around lunch. At the owner's recommendation, we headed to the Anasazi Heritage Center during the bad weather.

It was a beautiful place and a short movie and walk through artifacts and an exhibition of Utah Rock Art prepared us for Mesa Verde tomorrow. 

A chance walk out to the Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos at the center led us to a group of people who were gathered at the Escalante dig. 

Talked to the woman (and David to a man) and they're a group from the University of North Texas (and Minnesota) who are studing the pueblos from many different perspectives (she's a documentary film maker; he is a philosopher who was looking at social justice; there are archeologists and an environmental poet along with a Pueblo consultant). 

Such a good project and talk. Read abouth them and check their podcast here if you're interested: http://research.unt.edu/news/story.htm

Oh, and I was cheating on Cassie with this Puma!

We hit Wal Mart and I got takeout Mexican for a perfect end to a perfect (though cold and sleety) day!

Here's the urban view from my chair:

Wild West Day 16 October 6

It was a rainy and blowy night on the Colorado River. But it was calm by morning and was so picturesque, we decided to stay here another night.

We headed to The Arches National Park in the morning.

The weather was crazy: from sunny and 61 to black skies and 51 to hail, sleet and snow at 45 all within a few hours.

But the scenery was magnificent. These pics (and more when we get home) should speak for themselves:

One of my favourite sites was called The Three Gossips, but I saw it as The Three Women, and it made me think of all the groups of two, three, four and more women I belong to, and it made me smile.

The sun peeped through again around 3:00 as we headed back to the campsite (quite Butch and Sundance, by the way). We rested, sorted photos, I wrote and we're now planning our next part of the journey in Colorado.

Since it's day two here and very cold right now, no view from my chair (though it remains beautiful).

Wild West Day 15 October 5

Overcast skies started the day, the first, really, on this trip. We listened to the weather channel on our radio and they were calling for cold temperatures and SNOW at the 6,000 feet level.

We headed to Bruce Canyon National Park (6,600 to 9,200 feet!!!) to make our decision for the next few days. It was cold as we boarded their shuttle and enjoyed the heated bus ride to a few locations and took some beautiful photos. Each landscape is different in every place we've visited.

Oh yeah, we learned about Bristlecomb Pines, only found here in Utah, with a strangely shaped cone we had seen in our campground.

At one point, we saw a MH just like ours in the parking lot and approached the people, a couple called Lynda and George from new Mexico via New York and Appalachia. We talked for quite a while, comparing horror stories, happy stories and advice. We enjoyed their company and have a “date” for a future trip.

With weather getting worse, we decided to forgo the original plan through higher mountains travelling east and headed north than east towards Moab, where things looked much better. And we'd be on better highways in case of anything.

VERY different landscape here, more like in Wyoming. We commented on how it looked like we were descending, but the Elevation gauge on our GPS said we were ascending. Very disconcerting.

We said “wow” so many times, and David said pictures and words can't really do justice to what we're seeing. I still cannot imagine people, especially women and small children, living here. Not many did, or certainly didn't stay by the lack of homes, just large ranches now.

We got to the Arches just as the Visitors Centre was closing, and saw that the campground was full. We headed to some Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campgrounds CAA mentioned and found an amazing site, one of only 8 on the Colorado River. Wow (again).

By the way, I find that CAA maps and TourBooks and Campbooks are the BEST resources for this kind of travel. And I have used everything :-)

Here's the spectacular view from my chair:

Wild West Day 14 October 4

Up and off to Bryce Canyon. Seven muledeer greeted us as we set off. It was a beautiful drive through the park and through the 1.1 mile tunnel that cost us $15 because of our width; traffic is stopped at the other end so wider vehicles can drive up the middle of the tunnel. It was quite the feat of engineering.

On the other side, there were many beautiful scenic lookouts for photos. At one, we met a woman who is in Utah for the Seniors game. We'll look for a McDade in the swimming results.

In Orderville, there were three competing Rock Shops AND Figs Custom Caskets!

We got some supplies in Panguitch and headed east on Highway 12. The red “hoodoos” of the Red Canyon welcomed us.

We decided to stay at the $15 Forest Service Red Canyon Campground and picked a glorious site at the trailhead and overlooking red cliffs.

Lunch and off for a hike. It was 1.92 miles return, up 410 feet (to 7619 elevation). It was an easy climb at first and we were very aware that this landscape was once the bottom of ancient oceans or rivers when we saw coral-like walls of embedded rocks.

At one point on the hike on an 18 inch path with a sheer drop on either side of us. Yikes! I had to ask to stop. NOT my favourite kind of walk but was proud and it was SO beautiful.

Even created an inukshuk to leave behind (have seen NONE on this trip; such a Canadian thing I think).

After a rest, a three-mile bike ride on a great biking trail (these Americans sure know how to do it!). It was 1.5 miles up a steady incline and a 1.5 mile coast back (yeehaw!). We rode by two “perfect” arches (and drove through the next day) that were human made to look like the entrances to a “Faerie Land” (pictures tomorrow).

Back to enjoy our view and dinner. Heard some strange rumblings in the distance (it's rained off and on this afternoon) coming from where we hiked; seems the area further behind is called the “Thunder Mountain” trail. Go figure.

Here's the view from my chair!