Monument Valley was a neat place to drive through, although Goulding's was an interesting place. We were ready to move on. Moving on. (Navigator, photographer, and part-time bombardier. Dropping down into Arizona for cheaper gas took us up through Four Corners. This is the place where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. Waiting to get pictures at the spot. As it turns out, this place is on Navajo land, and is therefore run by the Navajo Nation. The place is nicely designed and clean. Notice the permanent booths bordering all sides. These are the ever-present jewelry and Indian crafts sales. I wonder if they pay sales tax in whatever state their booth is in (I wonder if they pay sales tax!!) Like the Visitor Center in Monument Valley, the facility itself is very nice and professionally done, but the roads, and in this case the parking lot, is rough gravel and generally unappealing. There is a number of BBQ pits installed, suggesting a possible RV park, or potential picnic areas, but there must have been 20 or so scattered around. Our destination now is Mesa Verde National Park. We found an excellent RV park about a mile from the entrance to the park. Mesa Verde was the home of Pueblo Indians in the period 600 to 1200 A.D. As I understand it, the term pueblo is not a specific tribe, but a term applied to peoples adopting a community type lifestyle, like cliff dwelling. That's not a good explanation, but if you are picky, look it up. Anyway the term 'mesa' means tabletop and generally is the flat surface at the top of a mountain. Mesa Verde is high on a mountain top, but has many deep gorges or valleys running through it. The Pueblo people built communities in the cliffs here, and many have been excavated and partially restored. We visited a couple of them. Here is a map of the park. The entrance is at the upper right. The places we visited are at the ends of the two legs near the bottom of the map. Notice the hairpin roads between them. One of the ridges was covered with burned trees from past fires. In the words of Mary Lou's Alabama uncle, they were 'burnt plumb up'! A visit to the site of the cliff dwellings began with a hike down the canyon wall. One tour began with a bus ride. As usual, click the photos for larger images. And finally, the destination. The round rooms are called kivas and had strong roofs with a square hole in the middle. Entry was through this hole via a ladder. There is speculation as to how these rooms were used, most likely for families. There are square rooms of various sizes. Note the windows up high at the top. These rooms were likely storage, accessable by ladder?? Water was concern for these people and it was obtained from water seeping out of the sandstone cliff, which acted as a sponge when it rained. Seeping water was caught in pots if dripping, or channeled into small pools from which it was ladled out. Crops were planted on top of the mesa, accessed by ladders or hand and toe holes in the side of the cliff. Water was collected from the seeps and carried to the top to water the crops (how do they know this??) Well after a day of climbing around cliffs and driving on cliff-hanging hairpin switchback roads, we retreated to one of our favorite activities. The hot tub. The view from here is much better than the view from our hot tub at home. That's Mesa Verde. Tomorrow we leave and drop down into New Mexico, heading southeast for Texas. We really hate to leave this cool weather!! Our adventure is nearing its end. Stay tuned.
1 Comment
Bo
7/24/2013 07:24:23 am
Wonder what the Indians have to say about Four Corners not being where they think it is?
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