Day 25--Cortez and Mesa Verde

Sculpture by Ed Fraughton
at the Mesa Verde NP Visitor Center

What a pit house might have looked like at
Step House location, Wetherill Mesa

Cliff dwelling at Step House, Wetherill Mesa

View of Cliff Dwelling from path walking into Step House

View of canyon from Cliff Dwelling. Note the abundant
plant life, indicative of a good water supply.

Our morning started a little slower--we got up at 8 instead of 6:30 or 7! After breakfast, we drove back to the west end of town to Notah-Dineh Trading Company and Museum, a place we found last night after dinner. Because today was the only day they were open while we were in town, and because we had peeked through the window at some of the Indian-made items, we thought it would be worth a trip.

The Notah-Dideh Trading Company is the real deal. According to their website (http://notahdineh.com/), they specialize in unique Native American art, including:

• Handcarved wooden kachinas
• Sandpaintings
• Cradle boards
• Moccasins, beadwork
• Sculpture
• Beaded baskets
• Original artwork
• 14K and sterling silver jewelry

I love looking at the pottery and jewelry, and what I found in this place made me drool! We learned that the "trading" part of a trading post includes serving as a pawn shop. The sales clerk who helped us explained that many times people will bring in jewelry or other items that they just have no need for anymore, and they really don't intend to reclaim them. 


After a delightful hour or two at Notah-Dineh, we headed for the Mesa Verde Visitor and Research Center (see their website for more information). This Center is a work of art in itself and well worth a stop.


With expert help from the center staff, we decided to drive to the Wetherill Mesa this afternoon, saving Chapin Mesa for tomorrow. Wetherill Mesa is the less-visited side of Mesa Verde, and in our book this is always a good selling point. The drive out to the end of the road takes about 45 minutes, with some interesting overlooks. When we arrived at the end of the road, we found several rangers in a sheltered information area along with the tram, which shuttles people around the mesa and to the starting point for the Long House tour. 

We elected to do the self-guided tour to the Step House area, where several pit houses and a cliff dwelling are located. When we got to the bottom of the canyon where Step House is located, we found two rangers who shared with us the stories of how the pit houses were discovered and a little of the history of the cliff dwelling. Some reconstruction has been done in the pit house area to give visitors an idea what these dwellings might have looked like back around AD 550 when the first Ancestral Pueblo people lived in this area.

According to the ranger, the Pueblo people who lived in this area after AD 1000 probably didn't realize they were building right next to some of their ancestors, whose dwellings had most likely been covered with falling rock and sand from the cliff above. The cliff dwelling was quite interesting, with many rooms, some of which had art on the walls. Smoky even found a wall where it looked as though someone had been making counting marks (similar to the way we might count by fives by using four straight lines with one line intersecting the four).

Long House from overlook

We climbed out of the canyon at a good clip (for us), hoping to get to the top in time for the last tram at 4:00 pm. The tram was loading up as we crested the top, so we climbed in the back row. At the first tram stop, Long House, everyone got off except us, and we had the rest of the tram ride and the driver to ourselves! She stopped at two overlooks, one of which was Long House. It was interesting to see the mesa top where the Indians had farmed and collected water.

Top level at Long House

Mountain trout at Main Street Brewery,
Cortez, Colorado

Our selection for dinner tonight was the Main Street Brewery, one of the top-listed restaurants in Cortez when we did a web search. Another great choice, this restaurant had an interesting, varied menu. We chose the mountain trout, which was delicious. It was served with fresh grilled vegetables (mushrooms, peppers, onions, zucchini), wild rice, and the most delicious beer bread we had ever eaten! Smoky and I were about to arm wrestle for the last piece when our server brought us another basket!

We crawled up our steps, tired but satisfied after a really nice day and a great meal. 

--Shann

Day 24--Hovenweep National Monument

Navajo storytelling bracelet

Before we talk about our experience in Hovenweep National Monument, I want to tell you about the bracelet I purchased yesterday in Canyon de Chelly. As we drove the South Rim Trail, at almost every overlook, Navajo craftsmen and artists had displays set up and items for sale. Smoky and I found a number of items we really liked. One of them was a story-telling bracelet made in a cuff style. The top layer, which is brass, is carved to tell the story of the canyon, and the silver under layer provides the background for the story. The bracelet on display was too large for my small wrist, but the artist's wife said her husband could make me one to size and deliver it by this morning! 

We were packing the car when A.C. Henry and his wife Geraldine arrived with my bracelet. It fit perfectly. I had been looking at Navajo bracelets for a while and this was the one for me. I'm posting a photo I shot with my phone, which will do until Smoky has time to photograph it properly. At that time, I'll explain what each part is. If you like A.C.'s work, you can reach him at 505-593-0187 or aroy_henry@yahoo.com.

Ruin in Square Tower Unit, Hovenweep

Hovenweep Castle

Hovenweep Twin Towers

We left Canyon de Chelly after breakfast (blue cornmeal pancakes) in the lodge cafeteria. We drove for miles through dry, desert country, where only scattered small plants were growing and homes were few and far between. The land was flat; occasionally a large rock tower protruded out of the ground. We pondered what it would be like to ride a horse over this country, carrying a flask or two of water and having little hope of finding more. 

As the road turned to the right, mountains came into view and the land up to them plunged and rolled. We were getting close to Hovenweep, which is in a relatively remote area in Utah and Colorado. It was not very busy with visitors--just our kind of place! According to posters in the visitors center, this area was made a national monument in 1923. The whole area covers a 20-mile stretch of Mesa tops and canyons, but access to most of that is difficult. However, one group of ruins is easily accessible from the visitors center via a 2 mile loop trail that goes along the top of the canyon and then drops down to the canyon floor and back up the other side. 

These ruins are said to be the best example of ancestral Puebloan masonry in the world. The stone work of these ruins was remarkable!

Because there were not many people on the trail today, we were able to stop and quietly imagine what life in this area was like in the thirteenth century.

Hovenweep ruins

That's Smoky's spoon on the
left; he couldn't wait till I
made the photo!

Not much left of that
apple crisp!

From Hovenweep, Cortez, Colorado was a fairly short drive. We arrived late afternoon, in time to check in to our motel, unpack a little, and choose a place for dinner. By luck, we settled on Nero's Italian Restaurant on West Main Street. This turned out to be a great choice. I had the best eggplant parmesan I have ever eaten! For dessert we had one of their two nightly specials. Tonight's choices were strawberry shortcake and apple crisp with cinnamon gelato! We shared the crisp, and it was yummy!

Soon I'm hoping to have time to have a blog about the different meals we've had on this trip! 

Tomorrow is Mesa Verde.


--Shann

Day 23--Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly, Chinle Wash

Delbert, our guide to Canyon de Chelly

Our guided trip up Canyon de Chelly was scheduled to begin at 9 with Oscar Bia of Canyon de Chelly Ancient Jeep Tours. I wondered whether the name of the company meant that all their vehicles were ancient, but the Jeep Wrangler we were in was certainly not, even though I'm sure it had been through some rough rides during its lifetime! 

Oscar was unable to drive us, but he sent one of his most experienced guides, Delbert Price, to show us the canyon. Delbert's mother and father are from this area, and Delbert's wife and family live nearby. He told us he had been one of the tour guides for the lodge where we are staying until it was sold to someone who didn't want to buy the tour part of the company. This opened an opportunity for locals to set up tour guide businesses. There are now at least a dozen local companies offering this service.

Anasazi ruins

We learned a lot from Delbert, who was very willing to share information about the history of people in the canyon. Ruins from the early inhabitants, the Anasazi, are evident throughout the canyon. The Hopi arrived next, respecting the ruins and remains of the Anasazi, and stayed until the Navajo arrived. After a while, the Hopi left rather than fight with the Navajo.

We saw pictographs in the areas of the ruins that showed drawings from all three groups, the Anasazi, the Hopi, and the Navajo. One of these depicts the massacre of many Navajo during the 1860s. 

Pictographs

Our jeep ride took us into only a small part of this very large area. There is only one entrance into the canyon, and that is by driving through the Chinle Wash, which today had a good deal of water in it. Delbert told us stories of how this was a true spring-fed river many years ago until dams were added upstream, essentially stopping the regular flow of water into the canyon and changing the landscape dramatically.

After seeing the inspiring view from within the canyon with Delbert (and after a short rest and some lunch), we drove the South Rim Drive, stopping at each overlook for a very different view. The rim roads (both north and south) are maintained by the Department of the Interior. The canyon itself belongs to the Navajo Nation, and some families still occupy the land in the canyon, most on a part-time basis. As we drove along the rim road, the walls of the canyon became taller and taller, until at the end of the canyon, they soared nearly 1000 feet above the canyon floor (per Delbert). 

Spider Rock, seen from South Rim Drive

This was truly a spectacular place. I appreciated the calm, peaceful atmosphere both in the canyon and in the area where we stayed, Sacred Canyon Lodge, which is inside the boundaries of the National Monument. You can read more details on Wikipedia.

Hogan, Canyon de Chelly

Speaking of the name, Sacred Canyon Lodge, Smoky asked Delbert today about the sacred nature of the canyon. Delbert had a different interpretation--he said the canyon was a spiritual place to the Navajo people, but not a sacred place. No visitors would be allowed into a place sacred to the Navajo. This makes a lot of sense to me. Even though there were far too many violent deaths in this canyon, the Navajo people choose to let it be, to honor the land. Perhaps the land has healed itself from all the terrible things that happened there. It is certainly beautiful today.

Prickly pear cactus in bloom, South Rim Drive

Tomorrow we head for Cortez, Colorado.

--Shann

Day 22--Monument Valley

We left Moab this morning and traveled south toward Monument Valley down Highway 191, with plans to have lunch in Mexican Hat, Utah at the San Juan Cafe, which was highly recommended by our friends Roger and Susie. "Order the Navajo tacos," they said. We checked the map and figured we could get there by lunch with no problem.

In Blanding, Utah, we stopped at the Visitor's Center. If you are even driving through Blanding, take a few minutes for this stop. Unlike most centers, this one had several exhibit rooms with really interesting early western exhibits. There was a music room, where a DVD was playing of The Piano Guys, a group from Utah who play incredible music. You can learn more at their website, http://thepianoguys.com/, and listen to some of their music. 

Still at the Visitor Center, we asked about where to find some authentic Indian jewelry and other hand-made items. Our host recommended two trading posts on the way out of town. With visions of turquoise rings and earrings in my mind, we headed out, but not until we had partaken of a tootsie roll pop from the basket on the counter!

When we found the trading posts, one was a large building that was part of an RV park. The second was an unimposing small brown structure. We chose that one. Inside we met Bob and Joan Hosler, who had built the shop many years ago and had been selling Indian art, jewelry, pottery, rugs, and many other items for a long time. Bob is 1/8 Indian (and proud of it, according to Bob). He had many tales to tell, almost one for each item in his shop.

Mexican Hat's namesake rock

Navajo tacos at San Juan Cafe!

We had been talking only a little while when a tall gentleman walked through the door. Bob introduced him as "Harrison" and said he was a Navaho wood carver. Bob showed us some of Harrison's ceremonial pieces, including a gorgeous large cherry bowl that he had carved and etched with ceremonial designs. We talked with Harrison for quite a while and learned that he collects cast iron pots that he has found back in Tennessee at yard sales. He is looking for pots 9 inches or less in diameter and 7.5 inches tall or less. If you know of any pots like this, let us know! Bob explained that Harrison and his people use these pots to make drums for certain ceremonies. We spent a fascinating hour or two talking with these good folks.

This delayed our getting to Mexican Hat a little, but we did arrive in time for a late lunch. The Navajo tacos are a delightful vegetarian dish of refried beans on Navajo fry bread with cheese, lettuce, and tomato on top. We ordered two, having no idea how large they were. Well, each one covered a dinner plate. And they were delicious!

After lunch we headed for Monument Valley, which fortunately was only a few more miles down the road. We have been amazed at how much the landscape has been changing between all these places we've visited over the last week or so, and today was equally as amazing and different. When we drove through the gate at Monument Valley, Smoky asked the attendant whether our little Prius could make it around their valley road. She said we should be able to make it. We had figured since we didn't really have time for a guided tour, we could at least do a drive through. Some of the "monuments" of rock in the valley were visible from the parking lot of the Navajo hotel, trading post, and restaurant. We headed out quite confidently but quite soon were bumping and rolling over a very rocky road. Sand, potholes, and large rocks don't make for a smooth driving surface. The speed limit is set for 17 MPH. From our experience, that was quite optimistic!

Fortunately the views were amazing, and the late afternoon light made for some lovely photographs. We didn't get too far around the road before we realized that if we didn't turn back, we might still be out there at midnight. Plus, our little Prius keep crying "ouch!" 

Monument Valley with road

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Since we still had nearly 2 hours drive to Chinle, Arizona, where we are staying at the Sacred Canyon Lodge inside Canyon de Chelly, we had dinner at The View restaurant in Monument Valley. That was a good chance to relax a little after the most exciting drive in the valley.

Now we are settled in for the night at Canyon de Chelly. The atmosphere here is relaxed, quiet, and calm. Tomorrow morning we are taking a jeep tour of the canyon with Oscar Bia, Navajo shaman and medicine man. 

Day 21--Arches National Park (with update)

I have two words for Arches National Park: hot and crowded. That's the Shann talking who had just spend four hours hiking on a really hot day. Temperatures were predicted for the 90s, and I'd say they were that for sure! The sky was almost cloudless, so unless you could find a tree that wasn't already occupied by a hiker in the same condition or a large overhanging rock, you were stuck in the heat.

Cactus are starting to bloom everywhere.

Now I have some more words for Arches:

Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch

Trail from Landscape Arch

• Incredibly beautiful -- As soon as we had driven up the switch-back road and topped the crest, it was apparent that this was a special place. Every direction you looked held your gaze because of it's striking beauty. Not only were the rock formations out of this world, the wildflowers are abundant. According to one ranger, this is one of the best wildflower years in quite a while.
• Well loved -- I say this for several reasons. There were lots of people there today, so something important must be drawing them to Arches. These people were from all over the world. Most of them treated the park with a great deal of respect. I saw only a few people stepping off the path, and I heard some gentle reminders about this. There was no trash anywhere. And, most important, the people I saw were for the most part conscious of those around them and didn't hog the arches. Of course there were a few exceptions, but not many considering how many people were in the park.

We arrived reasonably early this morning. Well, early for us! Smoky thought we might avoid some of the crowds by driving to the end of the park first and working our way back. When we got to Devil's Garden, the very large parking lot was practically full. So much for our theory of beating the crowd. 

We started down the trail, stopping first at Pine Tree Arch. It was a relatively short trail to this one, which was a good way to start. There was also a little shade, which I appreciated a lot!

After Pine Tree Arch, we headed on toward Landscape Arch. This one was a good bit further away, and by now the mid-day sun was beating down on us. Lots of people walked this trail with us, some much faster and a few a little slower. The trail was fairly wide but involved a lot of up and down hiking. Landscape Arch was worth the hike. It is the longest natural arch in the park and in the world. 

Raven watching hikers.

Whip tail lizard (maybe)

Smoky got some great photos of the area, and we headed back to the trail head. On the way to the car, we were greeted by a raven, who was sitting regally on the fence post, eyeing everyone who passed by. Smoky decided he must be on the payroll, along with the small lizard who had posed for his photograph earlier! 

We found an empty table in a picnic area nearby, and brought out our lunch, which consisted of plain sandwiches made of last night's leftover Idaho Trout (the trout was wonderful), some fruit, and a cookie and some chocolate. While we ate our lunch, some folks came up to claim the one remaining table. By the time their whole crew was there, I counted 10 people. I'm not sure what they had for lunch, but one of their coolers was quite large, and it took several people to bring the other bags of food! Now that's the way to picnic!

By 2:30 we decided to get out of the hot sun for a while. I think the heat got to me today, so I opted to stay in the motel and do the laundry while Smoky returned to Arches for late afternoon photos.

Update: Smoky proved his mettle, recharging his batteries with the beautiful late afternoon light. Here are some of the photos he liked the best:

Arches sunflower

Commong globemallow

Balanced Rock, late afternoon

Double Arch

Arches vista at sunset

Tomorrow we drive through Monument Vally on our way to Canyon de Chelly.

--Shann

Day 20--Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands

Colorado River from Dead Horse Point

Our plans this morning included Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands. One thing we've learned from this trip so far is that we rarely manage to get to as many places as we plan in one day. Today was no exception. We thought we could stop first at Dead Horse Point and then continue on to Canyonlands' Island in the Sky, after which we would swing back to Moab for lunch. Then we were going to drive to "The Needles," another section of Canyonlands.

Dead Horse Point may be the best State Park we've been to so far. I was impressed with the care that was taken to blend the man-made elements with the natural surroundings. Even the curbs and sidewalks were the same color as the stone and ground in the area.

Dead Horse Point

This unique promontory, which has a narrow (30 yard) neck, was used many years ago as a natural corral where wild mustangs could be trapped and tamed. The horses that weren't appropriate for training and selling were left on the promontory to find their own way off. Legend has it that one time some of these reject horses didn't leave and died of thirst, thus the name of the area. 

This is a starkly beautiful area, and we spent a good deal of time walking around it and admiring the view of Canyonlands and the Colorado River, but it was a little hard to forget what happened to those horses.

By the time we headed over to Island in the Sky, it was lunch time, and we began to realize that it would be quite difficult to fit in everything we had planned for the day. So instead, we ate a picnic lunch next to the visitor center and decided to spend the rest of the day exploring this area of Canyonlands. The weather was perfect--blue skies as you only find in the higher-altitude areas of the west, warm sun and cool air. What a great combination.

Grand View Point, rim walk

We headed toward Grand View Point, stopping along the way at several pull-offs with terrific views of the canyons. We were planning to walk the Rim Trail. As we were walking toward the trail, I overheard a man say that in the presence of all these spectacular canyons and rock formations, he felt so very small and insignificant. I thought about that comment. Sometimes we humans think we are so important. It's humbling to go to a place like Canyonlands; I left with a little more perspective, I think!

Last night the storm that had been following us all day caught up, and the Moab area got a lot of rain. It seemed to us as we walked the Rim Trail today that the flowers, bushes, trees, and grasses were happy! It seems strange to say that, but they seemed to be smiling at us as we passed. There were puddles of water in many places, and the plants were vibrant. We saw a number of flowers today, several of which we haven't identified yet, all of them lovely! 

Prince's Plume

As we walked, I looked out at the spectacular view and thought about the insignificance of man. Then I turned and looked at the rocks and junipers and pinion pines and all the grasses and wildflowers growing around us. I tried to walk quietly through this lovely place, soaking in the energy from these surroundings.

At the end of the Rim Walk, we found a place to sit toward the middle of the point, beside a large boulder. We sat for a few minutes, listening to the sounds, feeling the light breeze and the sun on our backs. What a grand way to end the day.

Grand View Point overlook

Okay, so that wasn't exactly the end of the day. We stopped next at the Green River Overlook, where we read about Major John Wesley Powell and his exploration of the Green and Colorado rivers, which in 1869 were uncharted. Looking down on the Green River from this overlook, it is hard to imagine what Powell, who was a geologist and a one-armed Civil War veteran, and his crew of nine inexperienced oarsmen must have had to face in this undertaking. In his writings, he described the canyon walls as shrinking the river into insignificance. He may have been among the first to float the Colorado and Green rivers, but he certainly wasn't the last. In fact, Smoky and I are hoping to add a float trip to our list of things to do on our next trip to this area!

Mesa Arch

One more stop before we drug our tired bodies back to Moab: Mesa Arch. We hiked the short trail to the Arch and enjoyed taking some photos in the late afternoon light. Even though today was Memorial Day, there were only a few other people at the arch, and most everyone was interested in photographing the arch itself, which was refreshing.

Tomorrow we join the crowds in Arches National Park.

--Shann  

Day 19--From Vernal, Utah to Moab

Rock art along Hwy 139 south of Rangley

Possible solstice marker

Last night we stopped in Vernal, Utah, rather than trying to get all the way to Moab in one day. Today we left Vernal wondering whether this was going to be a day when we just drive on by everything and arrive at our destination early, with time to relax.

That was before we plugged our Moab address into the GPS and found that it suggested a different route than what we had been planning. Considering the GPS usually chooses the quickest route, we decided to alter our plans and take Hwy 40 out of town. We crossed into Colorado just before the town of Dinosaur and stopped at the town's visitor center. Two staff members were most helpful, suggesting that we take Hwy 139 from Rangley south and then pick up I-70 back into Utah. This road has a number of sites that are within the Canyon Pintado National Historic District (read more at this website), several of which have easily viewable ancient rock art of Native Americans. 

We had hoped to have a chance to see some rock art on this trip. We had not even entertained the notion that we would get to see some away from crowds of people! East Fourmile Site (mile marker 61.3) included a marked trail leading visitors to a number of instances of rock art. This is a beautiful, well-maintained area with Ute and Fremont petroglyphs and pictographs. And we were the only visitors on the trail!

The cactus are a sure sign of
desert Southwest!

   

Cactus blooming.

Further down the road, we came to the Waving Hands Site (mile marker 53.5) where we saw more Fremont characters and Ute figures (horses, arrows, outlined hands).

We also realized today for sure that we were entering the desert southwest--we found cactus plants and some were in bloom! 

By the time we left the Rangley area, it was around 2 pm, and we still had several hours to drive before arriving in Moab. Obviously, this did not turn into a "drive-by" day, but we had some terrific exposure to rock art!

Surrounding Moab are several beautiful parks and recreation areas. We are planning to visit Arches, Canyonlands, and Dead Horse Point. When Smoky took a second look at the map with our revised route, he realized that we would have time today to visit Castle Valley, a location he had seen back in 1971.

View from Castle Valley

View from Castle Valley

To get from I-70 to Castle Valley, we took Hwy 128, one section of which follows the Colorado River into Moab. This was a beautiful drive through a red-rock canyon. I was breathless with the stark beauty of the area. Then we made a turn and into view came some of the formations of Castle Valley. Wow! 

Castle Valley and some of its "residents"

Castle Valley is about 8 miles by 3 miles, and has a population as reported in 2000 of around 370, not counting the cows, many of which seemed to have free run of the valley. It is a truly lovely, peaceful place. We didn't have time to drive around the entire loop, but we are both so very happy that we had time to visit this special place.

One final photo (by Smoky) of the Colorado River, which I loved.

Colorado River near Moab

Till tomorrow...

Shann