Miscellaneous things in Colorado(05/20/12)

Well, I hope you all enjoyed Paul’s post.  He may be sorry he volunteered to write it, since I may try to get him to do it more often!

We were lucky enough to witness a solar eclipse while we were at Mesa Verde. I really like Lunar eclipses better, because I can just watch them occur, without worrying about having special glasses etc.  Although we knew about the eclipse, we almost missed it.  After hiking the trail to the highest point in the area, we decided we had enough time to do laundry before dinner.  While we were loading clothes into the dryer, someone asked us if the rumor about there being an eclipse was real.  Well, rats, of course it was, and here we were, just loading clothes.

  Luckily we had about an hour and a half before the “ring of fire” would take place.  We dried the clothes, ran back to the trailer, threw some cheese and crackers etc in the truck, and drove the 40 minute ride to reach the overlook where the rangers would be to hand out glasses and answer questions. They handed out little pieces of paper with pinholes in them so we could all “view” the eclipse. Doesn’t that look exciting?  There was a real camaraderie among everyone there, and those who actually had special glasses, were very nice about sharing them with those of us who didn’t get there early enough to get a pair.

 

While wandering around chatting with people, I found a much better way of viewing the sun.  Several people had cameras, binoculars and telescopes set up.  This guy had the best set up that I could find, and he was awesome about letting everyone get a good look.

The shadows that were created while the sun was eclipsed were really cool.  I remember seeing those strange crescent shapes during an eclipse when I was a kid.

By the time we got home, it was 9 pm, so it turned out to be a very long day.

Dozer has decided that Mesa Verde is one of his favorite places.  There were an abundant number of grasshoppers for him to eat, and the wildlife kept him quite entertained!

Taking a break from hiking and learning about ancient civilizations, we spent one day on a road trip.  We were within 40 miles of Four Corners and I didn’t want to leave the area without checking it out.  The spot where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet is on Navajo land, and there is a small charge for the privilege of seeing where they all come together.  There were also quite a few booths set up where we could buy anything from jewelry to T-shirts.  We managed to walk out without anything, although the jewelry was some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a long time.

After leaving there, we meandered through Durango, CO and ate at an excellent Mexican restaurant on the way home.

Mesa Verde National Park, CO (05-18-12)

OK,  It’s Paul writing this Blog with Sue’s input of course, see if you can tell the difference. So we left Natural Bridges National Monument after boondocking for two nights and I gotta say the new trimetric gauge that I installed was quite the stress reliever to me. Now I know how low our batteries got and how much amps I’m drawing at any given time. Way cool and I’m sure you guys will agree. Now off we drove to Mesa Verde the home to more than 600 ancient cliff dwellings, and, at one time, home to the ancient Puebloans that lived in this area from 500 A.D to 1300 A.D.   By about 1300, everyone had left, and although no one knows the exact reason why, scientists do know that there was a 30 year drought at about that time, and feel that the problems that the drought caused,- lack of water = no water for plants, crops fail, game moves on to wetter area, etc. played a major role.
You should see the road into the park! Holy cow!  Steep grades and switchbacks like I’ve never seen. No worries though, the F450 took to it like it was a Sunday stroll in the park. The campground was made for little trailers and small class C rental motorhomes which we see everywhere in this part of the country. The spot assigned to us was on a uphill curve and I had to back down around a overgrown bush/tree at about 120 degrees with a uphill ditch on the other side so little room to maneuver. We got it but it wasn’t fun to say the least.  
The first group to settle here lived up on top of the mesas in houses that they built into the ground called pit houses. Picture a square hole in the ground with a wooden timber roof structure packed with mud and brush. They lived in these to be close to their crops of beans, corn and squash that they cultivated.  As the land was plentiful the Indians began spreading out over the Mesas as the families grew. The age at which they got married was believed to be around 13 with a life expectancy of 30 so I could only imagine at the rate the families grew.
Later they began to build above ground homes of stone,again on top of the mesas near their crops. Some of these homes were like apartment complexes with many connecting rooms.   
The last group living there were the ones who began living in the really interesting cliff dwellings. It was believed that they moved to the cliffs as families and groups for many reasons but no one knows for sure. Some think it was to better pass the long winters  by building on the southern exposed cliffs. Others think it was a defensive move yet there were no signs of war and the Europeans had yet to touch north America. 

We took tours of the two largest cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace and Balcony House, both very interesting and pretty well preserved. The guides were very knowledgeable and presented well, telling us where they sleep, cooked, stored food and had ceremonial meetings.  What they couldn’t tell us is what they did with their dead and where they went to the bathroom.  There were no signs of either to be found. The trail to and from them was also very interesting- having to climb wooden ladders, crawl through a short tunnel and scale the side of a cliff.
 

Speaking of tunnels, did I tell you about the tunnel you need to drive through to get to the cliff dwellings? Well, it was way cool !  They dug through the sandstone mesa at one point to avoid having to drive way around it with more switchbacks. We found it to be the right place to test the new air horns I installed on the truck. They sound just like a freight train and just as loud.  

Horn in the tunnel