We ended up leaving Ben's house a day earlier than originally planned. Ben and Andy couldn't get out of work yesterday, so we decided to just hit the road a day earlier. Since we didn't have a reservation at Mesa Verde, we knew we could just show up whenever.
Yesterday was, by far, one of the most gorgeous drives of our trip so far. We drove from Eagle, CO to Cortez, CO. Cortez is in the southwest corner of the state. It was an interesting drive because the scenery changed so much. Eagle is in the heart of ski country in the mountains. About an hour west of Eagle we were in mining country. It looked very desert like and the mountains were completely different. They were sandy and there was very little vegetation. Then we started making our way to the San Juan mountain range. We could see them in the distance and it eventually started to look more and more like the Eagle/Vail area. Of course it was a perfect day, so the views were to die for. We were taking smaller roads so we really got to see a lot more. We stopped in Telluride because Andy said it was home to a fantastic bakery. We drove around and around looking for said bakery and eventually gave up. However, we happened upon a lot where a building used to be and saw a sign that said, "We miss you Baked in Telluride." Apparently the bakery is no more. Also, clever name huh? Ugh.
Anyway, after a long, but beautiful drive, we ended up in Mesa Verde National Park. They are doing all kinds of road resurfacing in the park so the driving really took forever. We got to the campground and got it all set up around 3 and then proceeded to drive 15 miles to the visitor's center. We thought it was the museum and were disappointed by the information. It was all about their jewelery and baskets and we wanted to learn more about their culture. However, when we realized there was an actual museum too, we felt better about the National Park system.
Because of time constraints, we actually weren't able to go to the museum, but they had pamphlets and signs with information at each of the sites. We first went to the Spruce Tree House. It was a village that we could actually walk right up to. We were able to see the different rooms and actually take a ladder down into a kiva. I was amazed to learn how tiny each of the rooms are, about 5x8 or so. Those rooms usually slept about one or two people. In bad weather work would also be done there. The kivas were more ceremonial chambers. They all looked very similar to one another, kind of like big hot tubs. It was so crazy to be able to walk all around the ruins and realize that people actually lived and worked there at one point.
After looking at the Spruce House we drove the Mesa Top Loop, a 6 mile drive with about 10 stops along the way. There was a lot to see and a lot to learn. The pictures are far better than anything I can write here to try to describe what we saw. However, it was mind-blowing to see the cliffs that the Anasazi people walked up and down a regular basis. They were like Andy and Ben or something! In all seriousness though, these people must have been in incredible shape. An alcove dwelling in a canyon really opened my eyes to the work they did just to survive. The canyon was a great natural barrier for them, but the alcove in which they lived was so small in comparison to the mountains they had to climb to get food and water.
We also saw some very early pueblos and some of the beginning of stone masonry. Jo and I read all about the stone masonry and took some pictures for Dad. It actually was quite interesting to compare the masonry in 500 A.D. with the masonry we later saw in the Sun Temple which was built around 1200 A.D. The technique and materials used in the Sun Temple were much more refined.
I can't sit here and write about the amazing views and interesting facts we saw. I'll have to just post the pictures in a few days. Someday we can look at the pictures together and I'll tell you all about it. Just know that Mesa Verde is worth the visit. There's at least a week's worth of things to do here.
Anyway, after visiting the dwellings, Jo and I headed back to our campsite. We bought firewood (ugh) and started making our Bunyan burgers! There's nothing quite like onions, potatoes, ground beef, and bbq sauce cooked in the fire. It was delicious. We finished our meal with some s'mores of course. There's nothing like stereotypical camping food to make you feel good after a long day.
We really felt like we were finally camping. National Parks are quite different from KOAs. We had a beautiful little site with some shade. Having a fire was great, even though we had to purchase wood. We slept without the fly on but even got a little chilly at night. When I woke up I felt like I should have gone out and made some hot chocolate like the old days, but instead we just packed up the site.
That's all I have time for for now. I will post pictures later. We're off to the four corners (Hey, why not?) and Arches National Park in Moab, Utah today. That's what we're doing with our extra day. Our reservation at Grand Canyon isn't until tomorrow so we're just making the most of our found day of traveling today.
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