Mesa Verde National Park

May 15 - 21, 2018:

It was an 80 mile ride today on route 191 from Devil’s Canyon to Monticello, Utah, then route 491 east to Cortez, Colorado and route 160 to Mesa Verde National Park.  We are camping inside the park at the Morefield Campground which surprisingly is still mostly a first come / first served campground, is huge with over 250 campsites that usually don’t fill up.  It is mostly dry camping, with water spigots, a dump station, free shower rooms, a nearby general store and a cafe that has all you can eat pancakes from 7 to 10 AM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_Verde_National_Park

View from the visitor center

The campground store is fully stocked

Interesting murals to look at while eating the
pancakes at the campground store

There is a lot of slow speed, mountainous driving required to get around this park which contains an inedible 4,500 archeological sites which include 600 cliff dwellings, however the majority are hidden or inaccessible.  I wonder how many of these sites have been excavated by professionals and how many have been stripped clean by pot hunters in days past ?  They don’t, for good reason, let the public know the whereabouts of these sites.

The cliff dwellings are the big tourist draw here, they are amazing to see up close, but only a handful of the best ones are open for the public to tour.  This is like the tip of an iceberg, as the canyons here are covered with smaller less accessible cliff dwelling ruins.  The other thing surprising to me is that the people only developed and lived in the cliff dwellings for approximately the last 100 years of their occupation at Mesa Verde.

In comparison, people lived in various types of pit houses and pueblo structures for about 800 years, 550 to 1300 AD, on the mesa tops adjacent to the fields where they grew crops.  They were fundamentally farmers who grew corn, beans and squash.  They used dry farming methods and managed their water by using check dams on hillsides to direct water to their fields.  They supplemented their diet with hunting and gathering using everything available efficiently.       

A good way to see the entire story is by taking the Badger House Trail and the connecting Long House Loop Road on The Wetherill Mesa.  This trail gives you a good introduction to the Ancestral Puebloan lifestyle and how the various dwellings evolved through the years of occupation.

The Long House Loop Trail passes the Kodak House Overlook and the Long House Overlook.   These are cliff dwellings that are viewable from the canyon rim, but not accessible from the trail.  The Long House is a cliff dwelling that is open for ranger guided tours only, but the Kodak House is off limits.  The cliff dwellings generally are not easily reached as they are built into alcoves in the canyon walls.  In fact it’s rather remarkable how the people climbed in and out of them using combinations of ladders, steps and handholds cut into the canyon walls.

View on the Badger House Trail

There were several early pueblo ruins

A latter Kiva ruin

Kodak House Pueblo

A closer view, the masonry on the right is still looking good

Long House Pueblo

A closer view

It is a known fact that all the Mesa Verde Ancestral Puebloans left by about 1300 AD for other points, but it is not known exactly why and it remains a mystery.  It is also known from tree ring studies that there was a prolonged drought during this time period. Other factors are possible threats from other groups or some kind of social upheaval.  As they subsisted by farming, the gathering of plants and hunting small game, it may have come to the point where they were just unable to grow or get enough food to sustain the increasing population.  It's kinda like what could happen in the our future with global warming ?       

Mesa Verde has been burnt by several forest fires over the last century and the former Juniper and Pinion forest will take another century to recover.  Much of the ground vegetation has returned and is flourishing due to the increased sunlight, especially the Yuccas which are in flower.  The Yuccas are especially beautiful in contrast to the still standing burnt trees.  Most would not agree, but that's my positive spin on the devastation.

I wonder how long these trees will stand

The is a beauty to the twisted and charred tree trunks  

Yucca blooming 

Cortez, Colorado is the largest area town about 16 miles away on route 160.  Twinkles drops me off at the library there while she does the shopping, it works way better that way.  I believe I have been to the library in every town visited in the past six years of full time RV’ing.  Afterwards we have lunch at The Farm Bistro, it gets great reviews and we now see why.

I do my usual exploring of the surrounding towns of Cortez, Mancos and Delores. I like them all and  it’s a relief from the dullness of Utah, but still not much going on in any of them.  

In Cortez I spend a couple of hours at the Trophy Bar to listen to a musician, Rob Webster.  I don’t think he is going to make it to the big time, but I liked his guitar playing and music.  That being said, it was more interesting watching the bar crowd who mostly had no interest in the music.  There was a couple at the bar, the husband had to tell his life story to the bartender while his wife sat there on her phone taking no part in the discussion.  I suppose she has heard this far too many times already !  There were guys in the back room shooting pool and playing the trophy hunting video games.  At the end of the trophy round as a guy was blasting away, the prompt on the screen said “You just shot a cow”, that was really funny.  There was a woman slow pitch softball game and a Stanley Cup Championship Hockey game on the TV’s, but no seemed to be watching.  I don’t understand these small towns where there is virtually no night life and the few places with anything going on are basically empty ?

Blondie's Trophy Room Bar

Mural on building exterior

I had to laugh at the sign, Yoga Class ?
I thought you said pour a glass

Cortez is actually a nice town with a great cultural center, several good restaurants including the highly recommended Farm Bistro and Pie Maker  Bakery, a few interesting bars and various shops.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortez,_Colorado

Mural in Cortez

The colorful Fiesta Theater established in 1912

Navajo sand painting design mural 

The back of the Cortez Cultural Center is painted as a
Pueblo, it looks so realistic in this evening light

Mural depicting the old Spanish Trail

The Pie Maker Bakery sign

Next I go to the Mancos Brewing Company in Mancos, CO to hear a local musician perform.  Mancos seems to be more of an alternative culture, artistic community and the Brewery had a good crowd, it’s nice to see the locals supporting this place, even if the beer is lackluster.

Inside the Mancos Brewing Company

Mancos has a really special cafe called the Absolute Bakery and Cafe in its historic downtown area.  I had gone there for lunch in 2014 when we came through here, but Twinkles doesn’t remember it, I must have been going solo again.  Anyhow I had a great lunch there, I even mentioned it in my blog post back then.  We went there for breakfast on Sunday morning, there was a 20 minute wait, it’s a very popular, but it didn’t disappoint.  I also like their tee shirt that says “old hippies don’t die, they bake”.  They also have a few nice shops, several restaurants and a classic old bar, The Columbine Bar, reputed to be one of the oldest continuously operating bars in the state.

   

Mural in Mancos on a building under restoration

Beautifully restored old Bank building

The Columbine Bar has been the town bar since 1903 or 1910 
depending on which sign you believe, I believe the sign installed
by the Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus  

Liquor Store mural in Mancos

Inside the Absolute Bakery and Cafe

We then went to the town of Dolores to take a look at the Galloping Goose railcar, unfortunately the museum was closed.  The Galloping Goose is a very interesting railcar that does an excursion run a few times each year.  I own one of their coffee mugs, it’s a favorite of mine and I was hoping to get another. It’s a scenic small town with several stores, restaurants and a brew pub and a great antique store.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores,_Colorado

The Galloping Goose

A great antique store in Dolores

  

Delores has a frontier look to it  

Spanish Father Escalante camped here during his epic travels
in the southwest

The Anasazi Heritage Center at the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a must see museum.  This is our second time there, but they had a new exhibit, “Trowels, Trading Posts and Travelers, The Wetherill Family” who were instrumental in bringing attention to the ruins at Mesa Verde leading to its protection as a National Park.  The Anasazi Heritage Center has a huge collection of artifacts, (3 million is huge), that were collected during a large archeological program to save artifacts that would be covered by water during the construction of the nearby McPhee Dam and Reservoir.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anasazi_Heritage_Center

Several old photos of cliff dwellings in early 1900's

This museum is exceptional, so much to absorb

So many artifacts on display

The dining room at John and Louisa Wetherill's Trading Post

Afterwards we drove into the back country to the Sand Canyon trailhead for the Sand Canyon Pueblo Ruins.  It was excavated years ago but then backfilled to protect the site from further damage and erosion.  As a result it just looks to be piles or rocks strewn about now, but there are signs to explain what you are looking at.  It was a huge complex of about 420 rooms, 100 Kivas and 14 Towers.

View along the Sand Canyon trail

   

We do another long twisting ride up onto Wetherill Mesa for a hike to the Step House Cliff Dwelling.  It is a short self guided hike and was excellant with a park ranger at the ruins to answer questions.  Afterwards we did another short hike to an overlook for the Nordenskiold Site # 16 ruins.  They are named for Gustav Nordenskiold who was a Swedish archeologist who visited Mesa Verde to see the ruins, was very impressed and did early archeological work at Mesa Verde with the Wetherill Brothers.  He also collected artifacts to take back to Sweden which became somewhat controversial.  The Antiquities Act came about partly from this act and others like him to prevent the removal of historic artifacts to other countries.  Ironically, at the same time it seems that US institutions had no issue going to other countries and taking their treasures ?

The trail to the Step House

A reconstructed Pit House in front of the Step House

It was called the Step House as there were steps cut into
the rocks for access

A view looking down from the upper area of the ruins

The Nordenskiold Site 16 cliff dwelling, wonder why such a boring name ?

A closer view

There are several historic park buildings and the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum at the end of the Chapin Mesa Road.  The museum building was built by the CCC and has great old dioramas and exhibits.  The Spruce House ruins are located nearby but are presently closed due to the threat of a rockfall.  We instead did a hike on the Petroglyph Point Trail which was a rough rock scrambling trail with great views.

The Spruce Tree House ruins taken from near the museum

We had to suck it in to squeeze through the trail

An imposing rock wall on the trail

The people used these rocks to sharpen their axes

A really good petroglyph panel

A brilliant Collared Lizard

Afterwards we drive around the Mesa Top Loop Road with several roadside cliff dwelling and pit house sites.

Square House Ruins are particularly great

There were many smaller pueblo structures on the mesa top

Next was the Cliff Palace Loop Road with many more pit house and cliff dwelling sites, especially the Cliff Palace and Balcony House dwellings.

Cliff Palace Pueblo is an amazing sight

Balcony House from the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail

House of many windows ruins

I was quite impressed by a mesa top area called the “Far View” area.  It consisted of several large Pueblo sites built on top of the mesa adjacent to the farm fields.  At that time, the trees would not have been there and there would have been a "Far view".  This area was inhabited for a long period of time in which many of the dwellings had been taken apart, rebuilt and and modernized just like we do today.  There was also a large circular stone reservoir designed to collect water.  At about 1200 AD the Mesa Verde area may have been more populated than it is today, that’s mind boggling !

Far View Pueblo and Kiva

This Pueblo had many rooms, most still remains not excavated

And covered a vast area

They even built a reservoir lined with rocks to collect water

A large Kiva room, they built these in all dwelling units.  It is 
thought they were used for spiritual or communal functions

I’m starting to tire of the long curvy uphill ride every day into the park, the rental RV’s and the foreign tourists, it’s about time to move on.  We are now delving even deeper into the country and culture of the Ancestral Puebloan people.

The next stop is Farmington, New Mexico,

Twinkles and Slick