Colorado: Mesa Verde & Durango

Our visit to the lower left corner of Colorado was brief but great. We wish we had left more time for Colorado but now we have an excuse to go back. It felt like Winter was looming and Tangent was waiting so we only spent a few days before heading south.

On our way from Arches to Mesa Verde we stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Center hoping to get some context for our visit. It was a great side trip and also gave us some perspective on the history of the land and people. The kids loved weaving on the loom.

And grinding corn with rocks. Hands-on activities are always good.

Cocoa and the kids at the entrance.

Glamour shot of the rig with the San Juan mountains. It was pretty exciting seeing this new snow on the mountains and we felt the pressure to head south during the cold nights!

The Cliff Palace was closed for repairs so we couldn't visit it. But we were able to watch people working on it.

We did take the tour of Balcony House. You have to sign up for a scheduled tour. And the ranger gives a lot of "orientation" information. Some of it was about what to expect in terms of ladders and tight spaces. You are given the option to back out at the top and before the first ladder. This is the first ladder. 

Our ranger, Katie, counting seconds between lightning and thunder. We waited out a downpour in this alcove. Since the storm was moving away, Katie made the call to keep going. 

The first ladder was about 30' tall. It was a little bit scary but if you follow the ranger's advice and just look at your hands the whole time it goes by quickly. Plus she stays at the top encouraging everyone to keep going. 

The view from the top. It's pretty steep but feels secure. I was still nervous and glad to have it over with. At this point, we thought that was the worst of it so we were very relaxed for the whole tour.

The dwellings were built right into a natural alcove. Very protected and you could really imagine living here.

Extended families lived here and farmed the mesa top. We were shown the route they would take to get up and down and it did not involve super solid ladders. 

Little ladder. 

Looking down at the kiva. 

The kiva would have been covered and it was a place for ceremonies.

Crawling through a tight space. We always went last due to our lack of showering habits.

OK, so they make this big deal out of the first tall ladder and the tight spaces. But no one ever says ANYTHING about this unbelievable nightmare! And it's the only way out! I was nearly in tears.

First, the scariest, wettest ladder ever, followed by this poor and slippery excuse for a set of stone steps, and last another harrowing climb. Drew is almost to the top with me behind him telling him to hurry up. 

Katie is well trained in chicken spotting so she distracted me by making me laugh. Thanks, Katie! I don't think I took my eyes off my hands for one fraction of a second.

We took the pic of the sign at the end. 

Working hard on the junior ranger book.

This ranger answered a lot of our questions. 

At the end of the day we had a nice walk to see the Spruce Tree House. 

This dwelling was lower in the valley and was so quiet and peaceful with trees and a little stream nearby.

Kiva.

Inside a kiva with the roof on.

There were a lot of deer in and around the campsite.

The campsites in Mesa Verde never fill up and we were there during a very quiet time. We had so many choices, we had trouble choosing. But we were lucky to end up with another family, the Chattaways, as our neighbors and had a nice time making new friends. 

The Chattaways moved on to Durango a day ahead of us but we re-joined them at the KOA there. We all wanted to go downtown to see the "shootout" at the Diamond Belle Saloon. We got there late so didn't get a seat inside but had front row seats to the action as it spilled out into the street. Little did we know that Paul had volunteered to be part of the drama! There he is opening the door.

Things start heating up. 

An Oscar-worthy performance!

The Chattaways with the gang.

Our kids get a pic too. Durango is such a cute town. Hopefully we'll get a chance to explore it more another time. Enjoy the rest of your travels, Sightseers!

Utah: Bryce, Sego & Arches

More driving through endless dry and nondescript land and random frustrating towns (Page, AZ you know who you are) brought us to the Utah phase of the geology portion of our travels. Brace yourself for lots of pictures of rocks.

The parks always make it easy to pull over and get a pic of the sign. There are usually other people doing the same so we always ask someone to take our picture together.

A mule deer. Before we set up the kids with their own blog pages, Drew chose a lot of animal photos for ours.

At Sunset Point just before sunset, of course. I don't know why Drew made a John C. McGinley face.

Hoodoo town. This picture looks unbelievably flat and does not do it justice at all.

Planning a hike.

Just a pretty photo that sort of gives the sense of the scale of the place.

Getting ready for the Queen's Garden Trail. Now go do that hoodoo that you do so well!

Different stages of hoodoo formation. Rain, wind, and the freeze and thaw process all contribute to these amazing shapes.

Kiddos on the trail.

Iron in the sandstone makes for orange spots.

Continuing down.

Hoodoo town.

More interesting formations. 

Rocks.

Queen Victoria!

Rocks and a tree.

Coming back up through the rocks. 

"I promise to look at more rocks and look up where the word hoodoo comes from because I forgot to ask." We ended up spending another night so Andy could continue to try to unwind a bad case of identity theft.

Before we got to Arches we decided to take a detour to Sego Canyon to look at some petroglyphs. We were on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. The road was rough and we came pretty close to losing Ginger in a deep trench in the road. But there was no place to turn around. You can camp for free on a lot of BLM land but we never tried it. 

This is where Drew's birthday wish came true! On our way in we were very lucky to spot this herd of almost totally camouflaged desert bighorn. 

The babies were really cute.

Pic through the binoculars.

Ewe and lamb.

We watched them clambering over the rocks for a long time.

We finally arrived at the petroglyphs on a huge rock. Too bad there was graffiti on some of them. 

The painted ones are called pictographs. What do they symbolize? These made a later appearance at our visit to Roswell, NM.

A little explanation.

We unhitched Ginger and drove further on to visit a ghost town. There was no information available but we're guessing it was a little mining village. This was the graveyard which had a modern headstone in it as well as the old grave site markers. 

An old grave.

No idea.

Maybe an old mine entrance?

We saw a large herd of pronghorn on our way out of the area. 

Blurry binoculars picture. Must.Get.Kids.Own.Blog.

Hurry! Take a picture! It's freezing out here! 

Our whole visit to Moab and Arches was rainy and chilly. This is balancing rock.

North Window.

A view from North Window.

North and South together.

Let's take a break from the rocks and look at a bunny! Squueeeeee! Soooooo cuuuuute!!!

Double Arch.

Double Arch again. Did I mention there were a lot of pictures of rocks?

Hey, look. It's Double Arch. 

A view of rocks from Double Arch. Are we almost done?? The road to Delicate Arch was washed out so we didn't get to see it. Sad for us, lucky for you.

Tree and rocks. 

A darkling beetle will break things up.

Deer among the trees and rocks.

Snow on the San Juan mountains. Phew! We're done and heading toward Colorado. But get ready for the next entry: Houses built in to rocks.