Mesa Verde National Park

On our way out of Moab we spotted a sight so Amazing, so Breathtaking that mere words cannot do it justice... ladies & gentlemen, I give you........

That's right! The natural wonder that is a 5,000 square foot house built into the side of a mountain. What's even better is that the interior was decorated in the 1950's, complete with mint green & peptobismol pink accents, and what's even, EVEN better is that there was a petting zoo complete with wallaby's and ostriches...

It was a little slice of Americana... & with it being Ross' birthday and all, I think he deserved something special!

Mesa Verde

We drove from Utah to southern Colorado & stopped at Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde was created to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblans. They built both cliff dwellings and houses atop the mesas. We only had about 4 hours to spend at the park and wanted to see as much as we could. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for any long hikes but we were able to take a 1/2 mile walk to Spruce Tree House.

Not much information is known about the Ancestral Pueblens (there are no written records and a lot has been destroyed). The cliff dwelling you see here was made of sandstone, and the mortar was made of dirt & water. The living rooms were about 6ft. by 8 ft. and fit about 2 or 3 people. Archaeologists think that they began to build these dwellings once they stopped being nomadic & began to farm. They were also skilled at basketry and pottery which they traded with other villages.

We got to climb down into a pithouse at Spruce Tree House. There was a small nook for food and wood storage and a ventilation hole for the smoke from the fire.

Navajo Canyon View: The Ancentral Pueblans used these canyons like highways, climbing up & down as a part of their daily lives.It was such a beautiful day!

Square Tower House

Look closely & you'll see Cliff Palace.

Here it is a little closer. See all the people? If we had more time we could have taken a ranger led tour of it, but they don't let you go down there by yourself. We're actually standing across the canyon at an overlook.

Mesa Verde was truly an incredible sight to see... very awe inspiring to be in a place that many Native Americans consider sacred. There were a few "ugly Americans" here, not treating it with the reverence it's due, sad for them really, that they didn't get it. But we were absolutely blown away by it's beauty & the sheer ingenuity it took to survive on those cliffs!

We wish we could have stayed longer but it was time to hit the road toward Taos!

We were lucky enough to see a rainbow on our way out of Colorado, maybe it was Colorado's way of saying, "See you again soon!"

We stopped in Durango to have a birthday celebration for Ross at Carvers Brewery... delicious food & berry cobbler for dessert... yum!!!! This leg of the journey was going to be the one & only time we traveled at night. I'm sure we must of driven through some of the most beautiful scenery from Durango to Taos, but we didn't get to see it. We pulled into Taos at about 1:00 a.m. and were ready to crash!
Next chapter, Taos N.M. and the Tate family!

Moab/ Arches Nat'l Park/ Canyonlands Nat'l Park

This is a long one, so grab a drink & a snack & here we go....

The next leg of our journey took us into the beautiful state of Utah... the scenery began to change dramatically & the rocks were getting a lot more red!

We had been driving for most of the day and didn't get in to Arches until around 5:00 or so. Arches is the only campground we encountered that recommends reservations, the rest being first come first serve... of course we did not have the aforementioned reservations, but early the next morning some sites were to be released... so we decided to drive into Moab (a few miles up the road) and get a hotel room, some good grub, and a hot shower before returning the next morning to snag a campsite.

We stayed at the Gonzo Inn... a super cool place right off of Main Street that more than exceeded our expectations (not to mention the nod to Hunter S. Thompson). We were able to catch a quick swim & shower & then head into town for probably THE BEST mexican food we've ever had (authentic Baja cuisine...delicious albeit probably more so because we had been camping out up until this point.)

The next morning we arrived at Arches early & secured a campsite for the next 2 nights. We decided to head out on our first hike before it got too hot.

We started out with the intentions of doing a small hike, but it quickly morphed into a much longer one... we started at the Devils Garden Trailhead & decided to take the Primitive Trail which loops around... probably only about 7 miles or so, but with all the side trips to see the various arches, it turned out to be much more, plus did I mention it was about 105 degrees that day? Yeah, we should have named this post "Adventures in Heat Exhaustion".

Landscape Arch
In 1991 a tourist caught some video tape of a huge chunk of this one falling off... you can kind of see a chunk missing from the far right side... it's the arch that all the rangers say to go see b/c who knows how long it will be here. It's the longest arch stretching more than the length of a football field.

Ross feeling quite powerful...

Fun Fact: the Moab area used to be a series of inland seas that would fill & retreat over time, archaeologists have found the fossils of crustaceans that made these seas their home... when the water receded for good, layers & layers of sediment were left. The arches were formed when these layers were under great pressure & compressed and then eroded by water, wind and gravity. In this picture you can see the erosion of the sediment into what's called "fins", with further erosion the fins get blowouts that eventually become arches.

Shhh... I think it's definitely frowned upon to climb named arches...

Yet another fun fact: this is biological soil crust (or cryptobiotic)... it's dirt that is actually alive! It's made up of cyanobacteria, mosses, soil lichens, green algae, microfungi and bacteria. It can retain moisture & provide nitrogen to itself & nearby vegetation... that's why you see so many plants & shrubs in an environment that can't otherwise sustain them! Neat! They are super serious about staying off of it & only on marked trails b/c it can be destroyed easily & doesn't recover very well.

Are you ready for another game of "Find the Trail"... yup, it's there somewhere!

At the tail end of our hike, I started to become heat exhausted... I was well hydrated (my head didn't hurt & I wasn't nauseous), but I looked down & my chest was covered with tiny little red spots (heat rash) & Ross' jokes were becoming increasingly UNFUNNY! We finally got back to our camp site & there was no shade except for a small, low tree. We stretched out our Crazy Creek Chairs underneath it and tried to cool down. Then it was Ross' turn to freak out over the heat. We decided the best thing to do was to go down to the visitor's center & be in the AC, then we went into Moab again for dinner. We went to the Moab Brewery. We ordered & were sooo happy to be sooo close to food when the restaurant began to fill with smoke & they announced they were closing due to "electrical problems"... right... We eventually wound up at the Slick Rock Cafe. The owner there said that the hoods above the grills at the brewery probably caught fire b/c that's what happened to him recently, apparently they can't take the heat either.
But at least we had a nice drive back to camp!

It didn't really cool down all that much that night, but we woke the next day ready for another hike. This time we did the 3 mile hike out to Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch is Utah's state symbol... It is perfectly perched overlooking a canyon. It is also called "Cowboy Chaps" and "Ladies Bloomers".
We also saw some petroglyphs on our way up to Delicate..

After our morning hike, we were beginning to feel the effects of the previous days activities again... we thought the best thing to do would be to drive to Canyonlands (the Suby's AC was calling us!) Canyonlands is a HUGE, mostly driveable park with 3 main areas separated by the Colorado & Green Rivers. We took a drive to the Island in the Sky district & saw some amazing overlooks... the views were a bit clouded by smoke due to a huge brushfire burning in Utah during the time of our visit.

We didn't spend too much time at Canyonlands due to our heat exhaustion & the smoke... while we were there though we realized that we failed to pack any lunch fixings & were forced to pull off into a picnic spot for a sad little lunch of roadside Mac & Cheese... yeah, it was time to head back to camp! Before we did, we grabbed some shots of some other famous sights at Arches...

Rollins with "Balanced Rock"
"The 3 Gossips"
Once back, I will admit, I finally wussed out... I had had enough heat & knew that it would not get any cooler that evening. Ross, being the AMAZING, PERFECT husband that he is, drove us into town & got us a motel room... 1 air conditioned room & 2 cold showers later we felt like new people... AND it turns out we are absolute GENIUSES because that evening a storm rolled in & there was thunder & lightening all night...The desk clerk at the motel said we were lucky b/c people have been struck by lightening at the campground we were staying at! So I prefer to think that my animal like skills are so honed that I knew to seek shelter, rather than having a complete & utter heat freak out.

The next morning we awoke to a light drizzle & my handsome hubby's birthday!!!!!!! Next we're heading through Colorado on our way to Taos, stopping at Mesa Verde Nat'l Park... I promise that post won't be as long!!!! Are you with me??!!

Great Basin Nat'l Park

We stopped & had a little breakfast in South Shore. We went & touched the lake & said good morning!

Ross & his copilot are ready to hit the road!

We saw a lot of this...

and a little of this...

We spent the first 2 nights of our trip at Great Basin National Park. It's right on the border of Nevada & Utah. Neither of us had ever been there & let me tell you, it was quite the little find! We camped at nearly 10,000 ft. elevation at the base of Wheeler Peak, The park includes much of the South Snake Range. We saw desert, alpine forest, ancient bristle cone pines, limestone caverns and glaciers...

The view from our camp site...

Rollins decided that he just had to climb a tree...

I'm sure "Senor Sappy Britches" won't be trying that move again any time soon!


Lehman Caves... it's actually a single cavern... it extends about 1/4 mile at the base of the Snake Range. It was named after Absalom Lehman (I just like to say Absalom) but of course, the natives knew of the cavern long before he did... we saw lots of stalagtites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, flowstone, and soda straws, there were also a number of circular shields which are apparently quite rare....

This is Bob, our tour guide... he started out the tour by asking where we were all from, he then proceeded to explain that he was from a small town just west of Lake Tahoe called Placerville... to which I yelled "Me too!" I think I scared the crap out of him... anyway, small world! He's worked at 5 Nat'l Parks throughout his career... He's been at Great Basin for 3 years. Bob wouldn't be our last reminder of home as you will see later on!

Bristlecone Pine Trail & Rock Glacier....

We hiked up to a Bristlecone Pine grove... these trees can live to be 4,000 years old or older, in fact the worlds oldest living tree was a bristlecone at 4,950 years... truly incredible to be able to touch these monuments of endurance, perseverance and longevity....

Awe inspiring.....

Friggin tree huggers!

We decided to continue our hike up the Glacier Trail... it's the only known one of it's kind in the entire Great Basin (the glacier, that is)!

That's where we're headed!

We thought we'd play a little game of "Find the Trail"... It's somewhat obvious to the left... but where is it on the right?

The trail quickly turned from dirt & boulders to loose rock the closer we got to the glacier... believe it or not, that IS the trail our feet are on!

We got to touch the glacier!!!! So gorgeous!!!!

On our way down the mountain I saw a rock that looked exactly like home! A little crazy, but definitely cool! Bob would have really dug it!

That concludes the Great Basin installment of our trip... Suby Roo is all packed up... next stop Moab, Utah, Arches & Canyonlands! Oh, & if you're wondering if there will be a quiz at the end of these posts... there will be... no joke! A teacher has to teach & unfortunately for you, my regular students are no where to be seen at the moment... pay attention & stay tuned!