Driving round and round 4 corners

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona - Mesa Verde, Colorado

We had coffee at "The Changing Woman" cafe with our California friends before we left - it was a bit hard for the kids to say goodbye. They have missed their friends dearly and it was good for them to have some company for 48 hours. While I am at it, a big thank you to those friends and family out there who do write to them; it makes a big difference (and it helps us give them meaning to what they are doing and seeing... thank you!).

We were going to take the scenic Monument Valley route, but why go out of our way when we saw mesas like this just the same?

We followed this truck, jeep, motorcycle, pop-up camper for 30 miles. We speculated why anyone would need all this gear...
Yes, it's Four Corners, folks! Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. It had to be done...and it was on route... (kids were feeling it)

Even Neil got into the spirit of this (Eleni, not so much...) 

Our glam girl singing in the backseat

Oh yeah, baby!
Alex singing - Is it OK that he knows almost all the words to Bohemian Rhapsody?

And then, somewhere around 1 PM, we arrived at Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde was inhabited by Native Americans 1, 400 years ago. Originally the Ancestral Puebloans lived above these cliffs, but in the late 1190s to 1270s they built communities into the sandstone and shale. they lived here for less than 100 years, and then for reasons that can only be speculated upon (drought, crop failure, enemies, overuse of land, over population), they left and traveled south. This site is the first man made National Monument to be preserved in the USA. 

We set up our site at the campsite (and forgot to consider the elevation. So much for that learning curve. That is a different story)

The Spruce Tree House walk...
Eleni in WOW mode!
A Kiva (we all climbed in one!). These are gathering places, ceremonial or religious rooms that were beneath the ground.

Where fire was last year and soon you will see photos of where it was this year...
The canyon where the famous Cliff Palace is (you can just see it in the top left corner)

Here is the current day fire - you can barely make out the water plane in the smoke. This was a canyon over from the Cliff Palace
Eleni and her notes!
Cliff Palace
The fire wasn't close enough for us to evacuate, yet...but it did change our plans to stay another day (oh, and the altitude!). At least it wasn't because we almost ran out of gas...

Alex and I went to hear the Ranger talk at 9 PM, but were far more impressed with the stars! 

And there you go.