Sundance Bear Lodge Mancos

... taken a new liking to the freezing water aspect of swimming, it's far more than refreshing and just cleanses the soul. I love it.

Now we're off to Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns, in the south of NM. Definitely keeping my eyes peeled for UFOs still. Forever changing scenery, we're back to tan flat lands and shrubs.

Randoms:
-Crossed the Continental Divide (determinant of water flowing to Pacific or Atlantic Oceans)
-Voluntary Simplicity. Outwardly more ...

Aside from the extremely low temperatures at Grand Canyon, we have been very fortunate with the weather up until now, so we couldn't really complain when the morning of the day we had set aside to explore Mesa Verde National Park there was torrential rain and you couldn't see a foot ahead of the car thanks to the fog in the mountains!
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, United States traceourtracks

... admit that these cliffs were looking very appealing compared to our dirty, hot RV parked in the RV parking lot.  Did you know that most native peoples lived in matrilineal clans?  Not sure if Tony, my brother-in-law, & Ross could hack it, but living as a Nielsen clan in a cliff dwelling has some appeal.  Throughout our time in both Mesa Verde & Canyon ...

... ancient American people culture and living back in the 800AD - 1300AD. Only a short drive out of town we turned into the National Park road. According to the maps the road is paved all the way. A big sigh of relief from the travellers after yesterday's excursion. Our National parks pass works for us again, just in two days we have had access to three National Parks at no cost. The road rose very quickly to take us to the top of the Mesa plateau, to ...

... s - il y en a trop! donc on essaye d'éduquer les randonneurs); le second film concerne les débuts de l'archéologie et surtout de la découverte des sites extraordinaires de Mesa Verde, perchés au milieu des falaises. J'ai aussi passé du temps avec la bénévole de la librairie qui m'a conseillé des livres, des lieux à visiter, etc. Mince j'aurais jamais le temps de tout voir! et le pire, c'est que je suis passée à côté de super sites dans l'Utah!!! Tant pis, ce sera pour ...

... take have contradictory information. So little is known about how they lived, why they built on the cliffs and why they suddenly disappeared. We took tours of Cliff Palace and Balcony House and we had to ascend/descent wooden ladders (one was 32 feet high) to get into them. The Puebloans didn't use ladders they had hand and toe holes on the side of the rocks that got them around. Amazing! How they could ...

... now turned wine maker and restaurant entrepreneur. He gave us a tour of his small aging barn and expounded on the virtues of French oak barrels over those made from American oak. At this point, another couple from Alabama arrived and asked if they could join the tasting and John led us into his office which doubles as his tasting room. He poured whites, rosés, and reds, all the while telling us about the five star ...

... access to the sites and also the fragility of the ruins. We were happy to pay as we knew we would get maximum benefit from all the knowledge of the rangers. We were right as they were both excellent. If you have never heard of Mesa Verde then it is somewhere you should go if you are ever coming to the States. It is a remarkable place. The Puebloan Indians built sandstone-block houses into the side of the cliffs way up high under the flat tops ...

... My heart was thudding as I started up, and I was gripping that ladder to death. But I was NOT going to be the first one to freeze on the ladder and to suffer the humiliation of having to be led back the way we had come by the ranger! So the thought of embarrassment conquered my fear of the ladder & I made it! Boy, was it nice to be on solid ground, even if that ground under my feet was 800 year old reclaimed ground! The view from the top was worth it to, and it was ...

... of souvenir pamphlets. Then, we made the long trek back to Cortez.

I really didn’t get any sense of spiritual significance at Mesa Verde. What I did get was an appreciation for the ingenuity and dedication it must have taken to build these structures. The way that they blend into the surroundings without overpowering them is truly amazing. Also amazing is the fact that these structures have stood for about 800 years. The fact that they ...