Cliff Palace Dwelling
On Monday (with the gracious loan of the Wheatley Murano) we headed for Mesa Verde National Park in SW Colorado. As with driving anywhere in CO, the trip is half the fun! On the way there we stopped at Smuggler's brewpub in Telluride (very good) and Main Street Brewpub in Cortez (OK.) We also got some walking around time in Telluride, which was hosting 700+ people for the biennial International Snow Science Workshop (Who knew of such a thing? They study avalanches...) We spent the night in Cortez at a relatively tastefully kokopellied Holiday Inn Express (or should that be "kokopellified?" Either way pueblo Indian symbols were everywhere!)
Tuesday it was off to Mesa Verde. We visited several mesa sites and the Spruce Tree cliff dwelling. We called it a day early, as I discovered I had left the memory card for the camera in Houston. We already had plans for dinner with Barb's friend Terry in Durango, so we booked a room at the Mesa Verde park hotel and headed out. After touring around Durango (and finding a good deal on a memory card) we met Terry at Carver's brewpub (good beer.) I enjoyed getting a chance to get to know Terry, who Barbara worked with in Canyon Lake.
Terry and Barbara
On Wednesday we watched the sunrise from the motel - the view was awesome. We then took the first tour of the Cliff Palace cliff dwelling (see picture at top of blog.) Taking the first tour was definitely a good idea, as it allowed us to take pictures with no one else at the site as we approached it.
We then spent an hour driving to and visiting the Mesa Top sites, which show the evolution of the Anasazi Indian dwellings from pit houses to cliff dwellings. The Anasazi were ancestors of the Pueblo and Hopi Indians, among others.
We finished our visit by hiking to a petroglyph site, about 1.5 miles from the central park facilities. It proved to be more strenuous than anticipated - If Barb had been 1-week more pregnant we would have had to turn back! As it was, we made it fine and actually passed the only people we saw on the trail.
We headed out and made it to Grand Junction Wednesday night. Hotels were scarce due to an Orowheat convention (!?) so don't ask Barbara about her feelings on the motel we stayed at! We ate at the Rockslide Brewpub (beer - pretty good, nice atmosphere.) Thursday it was back to our Denver home at the Wheatley's
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