johnboystravelblog

This is the one cliff dwelling which was still open for a self-guided tour (and was a reasonable walking distance from the parking lot.  I don’t do hikes over a mile in length).

This was the first view I had of Step House:

To give you some orientation – my car is parked up on the mesa at the level of the trees at the top of the photo.  From the parking lot I looked east and the dwelling was over the cliff, below me (at a lower level, not under my car).  From the vantage point I took this picture from I would walk further away from the cliff (to my right/rear as seen from here) then double back and walk down a path constructed by the CCC back in the 1930’s and enter the dwelling from the left as seen from the front.  I would exit from the right and take another path and series of switchbacks to get back up to the parking area.  The total walking distance (both the entry and exit paths) was about a mile.

And here we go….  This was after I turned at the switchback and started taking the path down to the dwelling.  The switchback is where I saw the Tarantula Hawk wasp shown in the first post of the day.

Then down these stairs:

And along more pathway to get to the dwelling:

Once I got to the dwelling there was a ranger there to answer questions about what I was seeing.  My first question was, before the nice path that the Civilian Conservation Corps built, how did the people who lived here get in and out?  He pointed out the original “steps” (which is why they call this Step House).

I know it looks like I was holding the camera crooked but keep in mind that the cliff roof curves out over the dwelling and over open space.  I assure you, this is with the camera held straight.  The sign at the bottom right of the photo shows that I am standing upright.

The first things I saw upon getting to the dwelling were two open pits and one pit house.

The pit house is like the one Casey, at Canyon de Chelly, had built a miniature of.  It would have been completely enclosed and accessed by a ladder through the hole in the roof.  The ranger told me that there was evidence of logs and other material in this pit which is why they surmised that it had been a pit house.  The roof, as well as the walls on all three pits were reconstructed with the help of folks from National Geographic and a team of archeologists.  The other structures in the dwelling are pretty much as they were found.  There was actually some debris (collapsed walls, etc) which was cleared away and used to help shore up the paths built by the CCC.  Some of the remaining walls may have been reinforced for safety, but other than that everything else is original.

This was after climbing the ladder and was looking back at the three pits.  The ranger is at the left of the photo below:

And this ladder wasn’t all that long.  The one I had to climb down on when I was visiting a cliff dwelling in New Mexico back in May was maybe three times longer and, while sturdy, was a little more intimidating.  Other dwelling tours at this Park involve climbing multiple ladders, like this but longer, as well as crawling through tunnels and going through narrow holes and passageways.  They also required longer hikes to get there, which is why I wouldn’t have done them anyway.  Some of the dwellings at this Park are closed for the season, or for special functions or safety reasons.

 

 

 

This is not a tree house, it is a cliff dwelling located near the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum in Mesa Verde National Park.  Normally this cliff dwelling would be open for self-guided tours, however the Park has signs up that due to “Rock Fall Hazards” the trail to the dwelling is closed.  Given the unfortunate events at Yosemite National Park in California over the last few days (a tourist killed and several others injured by falling rocks) the Park Service isn’t taking any chances.

There is a parking area off the main road and there are several buildings including a gift shop and snack shop (where I had a great lunch at a reasonable price) and the Archeological Museum.  The photos below were taken from behind the museum, at an overlook which allowed me to view and photograph the dwelling without actually going over to it.  It was maybe 200-300 feet away.

The Spruce Tree House consists of 130 rooms and 8 kivas (the round, largely ceremonial areas).  It is believed to have housed as many as 25 families of Ancient Pueblo People.  That seems to be a general classification for people before Indians began establishing tribes.  One-level cliff dwellings soon gave way to multi-level dwellings and eventually multi-story dwellings like this one.

And since I couldn’t go see the dwelling up close I used the digital camera to zoom in and get some close-up shots:

And zoomed in even a little closer of some specific areas to try and show some of the detail:

No, that’s not a typo.  Earlier in the trip I traveled on a small portion of Historic Route 66.  Not many people know there used to be a US Route 666 (triple 6 – the sign of the devil).  Unbeknownst to me I have actually been on that road several times during this trip, while down in Arizona and here in Colorado.  In additional to people’s natural resistance to traveling on what they thought might be a “cursed” road, the bigger problem was sign theft.  Arizona finally renumbered the road to US 191 in 1993 and Colorado followed suit in 2003, renumbering their portion US 491.  Curiously, when I was passing through down near the Four Corners area I noticed that my GPS still referred to the road as 666 (I have suspected all along that she has some of the devil in her….).

A friend of mine asked me to keep an eye out for old 666 signs during my trip.  I went to an antique shop in Cortez when they opened at 9 o’clock and sure enough, they had two signs.  I took pictures and sent them to my friend Tom (he and his wife are my hosts when I stay in their home in Missouri via Airbnb).  As you may be able to see from the price tag, they wanted $250 for this never-used sign.  And don’t think the price is high just because it is in mint condition.  A clearly used sign with the triple-6 was selling for $600!!  Since it will probably never sell they should have just priced it at $666.

Not surprisingly, Tom passed on both signs.

I spent most of the day Saturday at Mesa Verde National Park, about 35 miles west of Durango.  I had stopped here when I was in Durango about a month ago but when I got to the Visitor Center and learned how much there is to see here I decided to wait and spend some quality time on my return trip.  Today I finally have the car issues resolved and tried to dedicate most of the day to the Park.

Unfortunately, rain and cold, windy weather had other ideas.  I could tell on the radar that a powerful thunderstorm system was rapidly moving in from the southwest.  As I drove west towards the Park I could see the wicked lightning and very, very dark clouds.  I knew there had been hail with the storm the day before so I was a little nervous but after the first portion of the storm crossed the road I was actually able to scoot through and past the entrance to the Park and overshoot it to the town of Cortez, about 10 miles further west before the second, and larger portion of the storm hit.  There I went to a 24 hour Wal-Mart and shopped for things I didn’t need until the rest of the storm passed.

When conditions improved and the lightning was safely away I went back and spent the rest of the morning and all afternoon at the Park.  Unfortunately, most of the cave dwelling tours are finished for the season.  I may be able to see them from a distance but won’t get close.  The day remained overcast and cold (never even made it past 60 until mid-afternoon).  I took some pictures but will hold off posting them until tomorrow.  I plan to go back all day today (Sunday) and the rain is gone and the weather (and temps) should be much better.  I will visit at least one of the cliff dwellings which still have tours and post those pictures tomorrow.

In the meantime, I did spot one very small dwelling (not even on their map) and will post those photos now.  It is VERY small compared to the others, but will give you some idea where they are and how people lived way back in the cave dwelling days.

Here is a sequence of three pictures zooming in on the “tiny house” I spotted from the road.

My day on Friday didn’t go exactly as planned.  I had an 830 appointment to get my new tires put on the car.  I got there early and they were finished by 845.  So far, so good.  I then had a 10 o’clock appointment at another tire shop (I’ve never understood why Discount Tire doesn’t do alignments.  I guess they want you to buy more tires!).  Well, that shop discovered that I needed a wheel bearing in the right rear wheel (they took me out in the shop bay to hear the difference between it and the other rear wheel when they were spinning.  I know from listening to Car Talk on NPR that you don’t put off getting wheel bearings).  They had to order, acquire and install the part before they could complete the alignment (which the car badly needed).  So that ate up 3 hours of the day and I cooled my jets by walking to the Durango Mall, about a half mile away, shopping or browsing at JC Penney, TJ Maxx (oh boy), where I did get a good deal on a 2nd, smaller backpack, and Bed, Bath and Beyond (one of my favorite stores, although I only bought one thing as a Christmas gift for someone).  On the way back to the shop I ate lunch at a restaurant and took my food outside to sit at a table overlooking the Animas River.  It was a very nice day until the rain hit around 330pm.

I had been planning to spend the afternoon at Mesa Verde National Park, about 35 minutes west of Durango, after the wheel alignment, which I had assumed would be done by 11.  I decided instead to stay in Durango and do the 230pm Yard tour at the Durango-to-Silverton Railroad which I will be riding on Monday.  When I was on the Chama train about a week and a half ago someone told me that if you have a ticket for the Durango train the Yard tour is only $5 and you get to see lots of behind-the-scenes stuff.

While I was on the Yard tour a huge thunderstorm arrived in town (I was hoping it would pass north but it managed to hit downtown).  Other Airbnb guests where I am staying had taken the train ride today and when they got home last night they said that they got dumped on and that there was a substantial amount of hail north of town, which blanketed the ground and was quite thick in places.  I bailed out of the Yard tour early (it was just about done anyway) and got to my car just as the rain was about to hit.  It wasn’t raining where I was staying about 10 miles south of town so I went home and took a nap!

When I learned on Wednesday that I had a gash in one of my front tires I stayed close to home until they were replaced and was in downtown Durango for parts of three days.  Here are some of the things I saw as I walked around town:

The rocking chair in the photo below was in the Visitor Center in town and was actually very comfortable.  I have the name of the local craftsman who made it if you want to order one.

This bronze statue was across the street from the Visitor Center, outside a small downtown mall.

This Darth Vader model was inside the window display for a “Head Shop” (marijuana is legal in Colorado).  He carrys a condom in a pouch on the necklace (never noticed that in the movies…).  Glad to know he practiced safe sex.  We don’t need any “little Darth’s” running around.

Did you know Darth Vader was married?  He wife’s name was Ella.

And the stuffed bear outside THIS Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store is clearly a Denver Broncos fan:

 

Monday I drove west across northern New Mexico from Taos.  In northwest New Mexico there is a town called Shiprock, named for the rather imposing mountain which rises almost 1,600 feet above the desert about 10 miles west of town.  The mountain sits off by itself and is an impressive sight.  On Monday I turned right when I got to the town of Shiprock to head north to Cortez, Colorado where I was going to spend the night.  I could see the mountain off in the distance but the sun was on the opposite side so all I saw was a silhouette.

These were taken on Tuesday morning as I drove around the mountain clockwise from the north to get to Canyon de Chelly National Monument which is located southwest of Shiprock in northeast Arizona.  These were taken from different vantage points, each offering slightly different views and shadows from the rising sun.

Shiprock used to be a popular destination for mountain climbing enthusiasts, but after a death there in 1970 the Navajo Nation, on whose land it sits, banned all climbing and vigorously enforces that ban.  Their strong religious and cultural beliefs concerning death caused them to take that action.

From what I’ve gathered in my travels, an Indian reservation can be quite large, like a county or counties within a state (and may overlap states).  The governing body within that reservation is a Nation (Navajo Nation, Apache Nation, etc.), and in some states they even have their own license plates.  The actual towns where they live are called Pueblos.

This was one of the first closeup views I had without any clutter or hills in the foreground.  This was from pretty much due east of the mountain so there aren’t many shadows visible from this vantage point.

As I drove around the mountain, more shadows became visible.

And from even further around:

And this was looking back at Shiprock as I climbed (in the car!) the Roof Butte, which at  9,784 feet dwarfs the mountain which “only” tops out at 7,178 feet.  I was now west of the mountain so it is in silhouette.

 

These were all taken using the digital camera on Tuesday at Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, Arizona.  These were all taken at the first overlook I stopped at as I approached the Monument from the northeast.  There will be more pictures from other overlooks posted in the coming days.

These were all taken using the digital camera on Tuesday at Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, Arizona.  These were all taken at the first overlook I stopped at as I approached the Monument from the northeast.  There will be more pictures from other overlooks posted in the coming days.

These were all taken using the digital camera on Tuesday at Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, Arizona.  These were all taken at the first overlook I stopped at as I approached the Monument from the northeast.  There will be more pictures from other overlooks posted in the coming days.

While some of the following photos might appear to have been taken from a greater distance if viewed alone, these were all what I saw down by my feet where I was walking!  It doesn’t look like this everywhere I’ve been but this particular spot was noticeable.

The yellow and reddish striped rock below is about the size of a microwave oven.

Thursday was kind of a slow news day.  It didn’t rain, and temperatures were much more pleasant so I tried to spend much of the day outdoors.  It started off cool but warmed up to the upper 60’s by early afternoon.  I didn’t want to venture too far from Durango until I get new tires put on first thing Friday morning.  I went in to Durango in the morning, walked around town a good bit and had lunch.  I went back to the house (about 10 miles south of town) and dropped off some maps and materials I will need later, then headed about 20 miles further south to the little town of Aztec, New Mexico (I am staying in Colorado but am very close to Four Corners so 3 other states are close by).  I toured the Aztec Ruins National Monument, then went back up to Durango to spend some time relaxing and people-watching in their city parks, many of which were along the Animas River and had a paved walking/bike trail.  Lots of folks out walking, jogging and biking (schools were out by late afternoon).

********

The Aztec Ruins are located in Aztec, New Mexico.  Aztec was the name of the village and was NOT built or occupied by the Aztec Indian Tribe of central Mexico, which is what I would have assumed.  This village was constructed from the late 1000’s to the late 1200’s and was modeled after the villages at Chaco Canyon, which I visited earlier in the week.  Chaco is about 55 miles south of Aztec.  The villages there were thought to have been built between 850 and 1130.  The buildings here were constructed of different types of rock than those at Chaco Canyon.

And a big reason why ruins are ruins is that after these villages were abandoned, people from other groups came and pilfered the materials to build their own villages.

Aztec Ruins was declared a National Monument by Congress in 1923.  In 1987 is was declared a World Heritage Site due to it’s cultural significance.

Kind of hard to tell from the picture but in the photo below the window (or doorway) in the upper left hand corner of the photo was actually built into a corner where two walls intersect, a novel concept for when these structures were built.