Mesa Verde National Park, CO

Back to Colorado again ... temps warming up (somewhat) ... after a long drive crossing the bridge at the Dirty Devil River (named by John Wesley Powell and the contrast to the Bright Angel Creek that he named in the Grand Canyon) and then the bridge at the Colorado River, we wound our way to Mesa Verde National Park, between Cortez and Mancos, Colorado.

A view of the (snow covered) San Juan Mountains from the Mesa Verde Visitor's Center ...

Alas, no video at the Visitor's Center ... one must go to the museum at the end of Chapin Mesa to view the video ... which, of course, we did at the end of our first full day of exploring the park ... captures the cultural significance of the park preservation.

We did take a tour of the Cliff Palace cliff dwelling with Ranger Tom Wolf ... we had done the tour before (a couple of decades ago), but Ranger Wolf brought the community to life ... really a fantastic tour rich with details and passionate presentation ... the National Park Service has some amazingly knowledgeable and talented rangers ...

The landscape was a bit disorienting from our previous (two plus decades ago) visit due to the rampage of pine park beetle destroying the life of the forest, then major fires sweeping through the dead and dying landscape (latest major fires were in 1996, 2000 and 2006) ...

We toured Mesa Top Loop journeying through the history of the ancestral Puebloan culture ... from the early Basketweaver culture around 550 AD with pithouses on the mesa tops, to the "pueblos" built of sandstone on the mesa tops from around 750 AD to 1000 AD, to the Classic Pueblo Period where the sandstone structures became apartment building structures to the period from 1190 to the late 1270s when, for whatever reason, they built the massive cliff dwelling structures under the mesa tops and left their fields on the mesa tops, but lived in cliff dwellings under the mesa tops and carried water up from the river below.  In less than two generations, by1300 AD, the entire area was deserted and all of the cliff dwellings abandoned as the Puebloan peoples migrated south into New Mexico and Arizona.  Some mysteries yet to be answered ...

Square Tower House ...

Early pit house foundation ....

Sun Temple corridor ... one of the last structures built before departing the area ... never inhabited, never used ...

Mysteries remain ... 

Leaving Capital Reef National Park

No visit to Fruita Campground would be complete without a hike along the Fremont River Trail ... life blood to this fertile canyon ...

We even nailed a new bird (for us) ... a white-faced ibis feeding in the grasslands alongside the river ...

And caught some petroglyphs as we exited the park ...

This is the closest that I've come to seeing a big horn sheep so far ...

And Bambi and Fritz were ready to hit the road headed for Mesa Verde National Park ...

Dining with Bambi

 We've been asked what we eat ... so, I made a photo essay of our meals for one day ...

Breakfast is almost always granola, fruit (bananas, blueberries and/or strawberries), nuts, milk with coffee ... We actually brought along 5 pounds of Michelle's Granola (homemade in Timonium, MD) - our favorite granola from Maryland (we special ordered it before we left Tucson (original flavor and cherry chocolate flavor) and ate it all ... so, now we are "reduced" to buying granola along the way ...

And, we're having to use our French press for coffee because this is a "dry"  camp (no electricity) so we can't use our Verisimo Starbucks coffee machine ... (life can be so hard) ...

On our hikes we bring lunch (this is the Cohab Canyon - Frying Pan Trail hike) ... apples and alder fire dried salmon jerky ...

Then there is the post-hike repast (followed by the post-hike nap) ... (Paul is a fan of potato chips ... my tastes run to tortilla chips with salsa ... the Henry Weinhard beer was for old time memories)

Then there is dinner ... in this case chicken marinated in lime juice with chipotle chile pepper cooked with garlic, onions, jalapenos, and green peppers with black beans added and served  on a flour tortilla with salsa and cheese with a salad of tomato, mixed greens and avocado ... and more beer.

And, the dessert course ... fresh pies baked daily and sold in the historic Gifford House in the national park to raise funds for the historic preservation of the Fruita settlement ... And they sold homemade ice cream in cups to go along with the pies ...

Added note:  We have a great grill and a great grillmeister, but it has either been too windy or too cold or both to use it.  And with "dry" camping, we cannot use the convection oven or microwave for cooking, only the gas stovetop.

Cohab Canyon - Capital Reef National Park - Fruita, UT

We wanted to warm up ... best way is an early morning hike into the wilderness (or at least one way to warm up on a cold morning).

We hiked through Cohab Canyon ... a truly surreal experience in the early morning light as we had the canyon to ourselves and the shadows on the canyon walls were dark and revealing of the intricacies of the rock formations.

This was the view on the sun on an old Mormon settlement barn as we began the Cohab Canyon Trail ...

View of the Fruita Campground from the entrance to Cohab Canyon (yes, it was a steep initial climb up to the top of the mesa ... as I said, one way to warm up) ...

Inside of Cohab Canyon ...

And volcanic rocks strewn everywhere from some far distant volcanic explosion ...

Yes, Cohab Canyon is named for "cohabitation" ... the Mormon settlers in Fruita (no more than ten families at the largest) were polygamous ... and, when the law came to enforce monogamy, the "other wives" hid in the canyon to escape prosecution.

But wait, there's more ... we picked up the Frying Pan Trail and started a 960 foot climb up and down and through two more canyons to just before Cassidy Arch ... it was one of the eerily beautiful hikes that we have ever taken through high desert canyon terrain ... we practically had it to ourselves and enjoyed every minute of it ...

We don't know who Fern is, but this is her nipple (Fern's Nipple) ...

We ate lunch overlooking Grand Wash and decided not to go down to Cassidy Arch because "what goes down, must come up" in an out-and-back hike ...

One of the rare high desert hikes when it is actually cool enough to enjoy hikes, blue skies accented with puffy white clouds for context and "desert solitaire" ... and, as always, the hike ends with data (and a cold beer with potato chips) ...

The Pioneer Trail into the Middle of Nowhere - Capital Reef National Park - Fruita, UT

Mother's Day in Moab, UT was a bit ironic ... to escape the major snowstorm hitting Colorado and Utah, we holed up at Canyonlands RV Park and we did what mothers do everyday around the world ... we cleaned, did laundry, bought groceries and cooked food ... all to take "advantage" of a cold, rainy day.   We did visit briefly with Wendy Lee, owner of Chile Pepper Bike Shop in Moab,UT, to share Hillary's greetings with her.  We spoke earlier in the day with Hillary and she said that one of her competitive mountain bike racing colleagues owned a bike shop in Moab, so we went to visit.  Wendy seemed  both a bit surprised and pleased ... and wondered what it would take to get Hillary and Sander out to Moab for some "biking" ... although I get the distinct sense that her use of the word "biking" differs significantly from out use of the word.

We headed out of Moab on Monday leaving the comforts of Canyonlands RV Park behind and headed out for what we hoped would be warmer (and snow free) climes ... Capital Reef National Park in Fruita, UT.  

The drive was uneventful but we were quite struck that the pioneers coming this way must have been quite awestruck by the intricate maze of canyons covered by dry scrublands ... all seeming to be uninhabitable without the benefit of water ... water defines everything in this terrain.

The Fruita Campground in Capital Reef National Park is a treat ... the campground is placed in the midst of the historic fruit orchards of the Mormon settlers in Fruita and the intersection of Sulphur Creek and the Fremont River.  The orchards remain and are tended by the U.S. Park Service (and the fruit is free for the picking in season).  

And, as always, we (I) must visit the Visitor's Center and watch the video (quite good) ... and examined the exhibit on the Waterpocket Fold (named by John Wesley Powell) for one of the longest monocline folds in the world that basically folded over itself under pressure and the eroded the folded layers creating an other worldly geologic environment.

Enough for one day ... and we hunkered down for a cold (freezing) night, snug in Bambi (thanks to a gas furnace).

Happy Mother's Day from Moab, UT

Happy Mother's Day to mothers everywhere and to all who care and support mothers!

Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky

Perhaps a bit of national park overdose, but we went to Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky section (there are three sections - Island in the Sky, Needles and The Maze).  We started at the Visitor's Center, and, of course, watched the video (I am so predictable). We had an opportunity to speak with a knowledgeable Park Ranger regarding the geology of the Canyonlands and comparing it to the geological strata in the Grand Canyon (much older and deeper strata).   Then, off to Grand View Point Outlook and listened to a presentation by another Park Ranger about the geology of the Canyonlands.  These knowledgeable, articulate, enthusiastic Park Rangers left us with respect for the next generation of national park guardians.

We took several pictures, but nothing quite conveys the depth and breadth of the canyonlands carved  by the Colorado and Green Rivers.  We shared a number of memories about earlier trips to Canyonlands where we went camping when Sander was a young child ... Willow Flat Campground ... canoeing on the Colorado River ... hiking down to the Confluence (of Colorado and Green Rivers) ... juniper berry "wars" ... special memories of this red rock country carved by amazing rivers.

The trickster Raven kept a close eye on us as we had our picnic lunch ...

And, a few more wildflowers ...

Even a cactus blooming ...

We also went to Upheaval Dome ... a fairly unusual spot where one theory postulates that a meteor struck the area  and left a huge crater (another theory was that a salt dome under pressure exploded) ... whatever the cause, it is an interesting geologic feature ...

We're tucked into our Moab RV park (Canyonlands RV) awaiting a major storm that is headed our way ... we'll ride out the storm tomorrow and then look for a new location that keeps us out of snow and cold ...