Wild West Day 19 October 9

First off, today is the one-year anniversary of the death of my dear friend, Susan. It was a quiet day of driving through the beautiful Colorado Rockies, so I had lots of time to think of her and the other Coffee Girls who are missing her so much. Interestingly, yesterday, David took a picture of something that LOOKED like a Brown-eyed Susan at Mesa Verde, and I include it here:

We headed east today through the cold and a changing landscape. In La Plata (of course), huge, flat cattle ranches appeared in the midst of the mountains and mesas. But the snow-topped mountains around us still surprise me, they're so like picture postcards.

Twice through the mountains we had Wildlife Detection Zone Ahead signs (motion-detection I think for elk, etc.).

Saw our first oil rig since Wyoming outside Durango.

The colours are amazing. There are the rusts and reds of the low bushes and the brilliant yellows of the Aspens.

On our way over the Rockies via Wolf Creek Pass (at the summit, 10,600 feet), we saw mountain tops, snow (in the air and on the ground) and a bicycler, hikers, fishermen, cross country skiers, snowmobilers, downhill skiers and tobogganers. Here are some photos of the journey:

At a Rest Stop, we had two new birds: a Clark's Nutcracker:

and the Rocky Mountain Race of the Yellow-eyed Junco:

In Monte Vista, we saw The Feed Store Church, just across the road from, well, the Feed store.

Occasionally, in the small towns we passed, we saw adobe houses and lots of 1930's vintage old downtowns.

It snowed again outside Blanca and we saw more beautiful mountains, including The West Spanish Peak, elevation 13,626.

We stopped at Walsenburg at the Dakota RV Park ($23) to prepare for tomorrow's journey along the Santa Fe Trail!

Here's the “view” from my chair (there IS a mountain!):

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: