But our last 2 days here have been sensational. On Saturday we took the tour of Long House built in another part of the park. In was inhabited from 1205 until 1280. No preservation was done on any of the structure. It was dramatic and our ranger guide was sensational. He is a retired college professor and had the gift of being a natural teacher. After the tour he talked about the Ute Indians. They were moved to this area onto this reservation, but this land has little water and terrible soil. Then after the ruins were found in 1880, their reservation area was greatly reduced because the government knew that this was a special place. Mesa Verde is totally fenced but somehow, those Ute horses make it through the fence and cause havoc! The males are very territorial and keep other animals away from the springs, plus they are aggressive and make quite a mess with their huge dumps! Pay back time??!?
No one knows why the cliff dwellers left this area but their present day descendants, the Hopi and Pueblos, say that they did not abandon the dwellings but moved on. We did go to the Anasazi Heritage Center in Cortez. It was a very informative place and did a wonderful job of connecting the ancient people of this area to our present Native Americans.
Yesterday the kids left for Golden and we took an amazing ride up to Telluride, then back through Ouray and dinner in Durango. The drive was so dramatic, especially the stretch after Ouray. Even with all of our drives during last September's trip, we both felt that this was the most dramatic drive that we have ever taken.
The camera does not come even close to capturing the red color of the sandstone - sorry.
Telluride town first and mountain village second
Seth - lots of mountain biking here in Telluride, found this Yeti for you
For the next 2 days I doubt that we will have any Internet access so you won't hear from us again for awhile.
Hope you are all well and enjoying the beauty of September days!
Thinking of you all.
Just a few family shots in closing
And last, the blue moon.
J/K
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:U.S. 160,Cortez,United States
No comments:
Post a Comment