Mesa Verde National Park

I worked at Mesa Verde National Park the summer after my freshman year at Reed, 1970. Things have changed a lot since then. There are a lot more facilities and there are now self-guided tours of the ruins. Since it was fall, Balcony House was closed and all the ruins on the Weatherhill mesa were closed. I'm not even sure the Weatherhill Mesa area was open in 1970. We started at Spruce Tree House with a self guided tour. We hooked up with a ranger who was giving a tour to two people and asked him a lot of questions. Spruce Tree House is actually a misnomer; it should be Douglas Fir House. From Spruce Tree House we walked out the Pictograph Trail which went along below the top of the mesa. It was beautiful and looked down into the canyon.

At the end you came to this pictograph. The National Park Service had some Hopis come in 1942 and interpret portions of the wall. It includes whipping kachinas (which should really be spelled katsinas since the Hopi language doesn't have a ch) which pushed the people on their migrations, various clan symbols indicating where clans dropped off and settled elsewhere and hand prints (similar to signatures), animals, people, etc. It's very moving to stand in front of something that was made so long ago. The trail had various interest points where the plants were explained and their uses. The trail returned along the mesa top.

We returned, grabbed our lunch, and headed out for a 2 p.m. tour of Cliff House. This is the largest structure in Mesa Verde. The same ranger gave the tour. Most of the cliff dwellings were located near seeps where water that soaked through the sand stone came in contact with shale which was impermiable. Things we learned included:

1. The people were burried in the refuse piles/middens in front of the cliff dwellings indicating their return to the earth.
2. The buildings were built haphazardly by different extended family groups.
3. The reason the Anasazi left is unknown but could have been draught, exhaustion of the soil from the farming, but not warfare. There is very little indication of defensive building or of people who died from war.
4. The women married at about 12 and had 4-5 children and were usually dead by 25. The men lived to their mid-30's.
5. The corn was ground with a sandstone "mano" on a sandstone "metate" which resulted in a lot of sand in the ground corn. Most Anasazis had no teeth left and many had evidence of severe abscesses.
6. The kivas were usually covered and the ledges were not used for sitting, but for the placement of ceremonial objects.
7. About 80-90% of the structures were in original condition.
8. One of the reasons for the cliff dwellings is that as the population increased, moving the houses off the mesa tops where they farmed increased the amount of arable land.
9. Cliff House had 23 kivas, many more than what would be built by the population of the grouping, indicating that it may have been a central location for diverse family groups.

Ouray & Durango CO

We drove from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to Ouray, CO where our guidebook said there was an RV campground that was open. We are discovering that as you get past October 15, at least in the northern climes, the campgrounds close down. When we got there it was closed. We asked in the Visitor's Center and were told the only places to camp were USFS campgrounds which were primitive. We really wanted to hear Obama's address to the nation, so decided to rent a motel room (our first of the trip). We went into a motel newly purchased (last October) by a retired mailman and his wife. They were very nice, letting us plug Snoopy in. They were also pet friendly and had half-price tickets for the natural hot springs pool. They have had a hard time of it this year as tourism has really declined due to the cost of gas. We got out the swimming suits and went to soak, listening to locals talk about the ice park where during the winter people are taught to climb long ice faces. We watched Obama on TV and listened to the MSNBC analysis, still feeling nervous about the outcome of the election.


The next morning we got into the car for a drive up the "Million Dollar Highway," so named because there is supposedly $1M worth of gold dust in each mile of the highway's base. My father used to call this the "Million Holler Dieway," for the many people who died careening off the edge which is unprotected in many places. The weather was fabulous as you can see from this photo up the valley. Ouray is at about 7,000 feet and Silverton is at close to 10,000 feet. The road is carved out of the valley.

Once we got to the top of the pass we were in the Red Mountain area, home of the Yankee King Mine, one of the richest silver mines in history. It earned enough money that its owner was able to purchase his daughter the Hope Diamond. The Red Mountains, colorfully named Red Mountain Nos. 1, 2 and 3, are filled with famous mines that extracted silver, zinc and copper, though they are all closed down now.



We continued on over another 10,000 foot pass towards Silverton, CO, the terminus of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad, a real favorite with my father. This was the view from one of the turn-offs just before the pass. Silverton itself exists mainly as a lunch stop for the RR. We continued down 4,000 feet to Durango where we stopped to have the oil changed and the tires rotated on Snoopy. Bob went to play disc golf, but the course was again very rough and he gave up.


In the meantime, I went to the D &SNG museum and walked around downtown Durango, finding a real French bakery with delicious rolls and a grocery store to stock up on various needed items. When the oil change and tire rotation (the most expensive yet at almost $120) was done, we continued to an RV park at the base of Mesa Verde.

Photos for Lafayette Posting

It appears that the photos did not come through on this post, so here they are again.

En route up Mt. Sanitas.

Goldie and Gail.

Cari and John Muller's house in Lyons.

More Photos of the Black Canyon

Before you get to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison you go past Blue Mesa. These pinnacles were across the reservoir.

This rock shows the pegmatite intrusions.

Walking in Oak Flats among the aspen.

This photo is an optical illusion. The pinkish striped rock is behind a narrow set of rock pillars.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, CO

We drove from Lafayette to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park through absolutely gorgeous mountains. I had not been over Monarch Pass and through Gunnison since shortly after the accident that killed Andrew. I spent a freezing night in the Black Canyon with some Reed friends on our way home to the mid-west in 1971. This time it was bright and sunny. We got there about 4 in the afternoon and were the only people in the camp ground. We drove down to the Visitor Center to see if we could find a map and saw a bicyclist. When we talked to him, it turned out he had biked up only to discover there was no water available in the park. All the water in the park is trucked in from Montrose, 15 miles away, and since the weather is now below freezing, there is no water. We told him that we could give him a gallon of water if he came by our trailer. He showed up while we were fixing dinner and we invited him to squeeze in with us. Wayne, an Australian by way of England, is a serious long-distance biker. He started in San Francisco and biked all the way up to the Arctic Circle in Alaska and is on his way down to Argentina. The total trip will take about 2 years. While on the trip he met a sweety, a nurse-midwife from Switzerland.

The next morning we got up and walked along the Rim Trail to the Visitor Center, around the Oak Flats loop (which wasn't flat, though it went down to an oak savannah below the rim of the canyon) and back to the camp ground. We took Darwin along (illegally on the last two trails).

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is carved by the Gunnison River which drops nearly 95 feet per mile. Before the three dams were built upsteam, the scouring power of the river carved the canyon over 2 million years. It is quite narrow, in one place only a quarter mile wide. The walls are more eroded on the south side because they face north and the freezing/thawing effect is greater. The canyon is almost 2000' deep at its deepest. Though you can hear the river, it is muted.

The river wasn't fully mapped until about 1910 when two guys went through with rubber air mattresses trying to figure out where to build a tunnel to divert some of the water into the Uncompagre Valley near Montrose for irrigation purposes.

Part of the reason the canyon is so spectacular is these reddish intrusions, pegmatite, which occurred during the volcanic era about 60 million years ago. It's much harder than the volcanic material and so the walls sheer away in thin spires. We drove along the rim road, stopping at various overlooks. It is a really spectacular place and we were almost alone in it. We finally left about 2 in the afternoon, headed for Ouray, and the beginning of the Million Dollar Highway.

Santuario de Chimayo

We left Mountainair and drove up the east side of the mountains and past Albuquerque. In Tijeras, we stopped at the USFS station to look at an interpretive trail related to the pueblo located there. It was full of interesting information about the trees and plants, how they were used for food, the number of people who lived there, etc. We continued north on NM 14 along the Turquoise Trail (many of the Anasazi mined turquoise in Cerrillos). We skirted around Santa Fe and continued on the High Road to Taos. The first stop was the Santuario de Chimayo, a pilgrimage site for many people since about 1850. All along the chain link fence (which surrounded a pretty scungy corral for horses and a private house) people had placed crosses of various sizes. Some of them were very large and were carried during processions.

Outside the church were these memorials and crosses, covered with flowers, rosaries, candles, crosses and other items. Near the church you could buy candles and rosaries.

The church itself is odd looking with the wooden center between adobe towers. Inside are five painted wooden sacred painting. Off the sanctuary is the room where the pilgrims can dig up dirt and carry it with them. There is also a room filled with crutches and other things indicating the miraculous cures people have had from praying and using the dirt. Off the church was a patio with a restaurant advertising the best tamales in New Mexico. Bob had a burrito on a homemade wheat tortilla and I had the best chicken tamale I've ever had. We shared a bowl of beans with hot chili sauce in it. Later we discovered that it had been written up in Jane and Michael Stern's "Road Food."

We continued on to Ortega's Weaving Shop, filled with wonderful woolen blankets and clothing. Eight generations have worked there. The wool is spun and dyed in the shop and then given to twenty people who weave in their own homes. From Chimayo we continued on to a private disc golf course near Taos. It was 18 holes set around two houses and between a river and an irrigation canal. Bob was the only person playing and I caddied (so that he wouldn't lose his discs on the course). It was called the Two Gray Hares Course and Bob had a great time.

We arrived in Taos in time to set up Snoopy in a relatively spartan RV campground, but it was quiet and had electricity. We went in to Taos to look around the central plaza and in to various galleries. In one of the galleries the owner gave us a real education on quality pots. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant we just found which advertised that it was the choice of Taos for the last two years. It was wonderful New Mexico cuisine.

Lafayette CO & Goldie and Gail

Bob's daughter Goldie and her partner Gail had just moved into a house in Lafayette, CO, about 7 miles east of Boulder. The house had fabulous views of the Flat Irons out of many windows. They fixed us fabulous meals and took us on two lovely hikes on the weekend. The first hike, up Mt. Sanitas, was a work out, rewarded by fabulous views of Boulder and Denver from the top. Boulder is a city with a huge number of people who enjoy the outdoors. We passed lots of young people, old people, kids and dogs on the way.

On Monday we went to Cari and John Muller's house north of Lyons. Cari is the daughter of Bob's cousin Sally's partner. We met them at Ted and Myrna's wedding in Sedona, Arizona in 2005. We were the only people who wanted to hike. We shared a wonderful day hiking in Oak Creek Canyon. They live in this lovely house that was designed by Mark (who is an artist) and Cari's sister. It is stunning inside with Moroccan doors and shutter fitted into the living room, lovely mosaic floors in the bathrooms, and beautiful things everywhere you look. Cari and John have just (June) adopted two siblings (3 and 5 years old) and also brought two dogs and one cat home from Mexico, so their lives have changed a lot recently. They seem to be reveling in the change and Goldie and Gail offered to house sit for them in the future.

This was another example of having wonderful visits with family and friends along this long trip.

Guadelupe Mountain National Park

Guadelupe Mountain National Park, with the tallest peak in Texas, is located in northwestern Texas, very close to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It was only created in 1973. A man had purchased most of this property and then donated it to the National Park Service. The camping area is simply a parking lot with spots marked like parking spots. There is no water or electricity. Despite this, it was beautiful and we had the first cooler night in Snoopy. During the night it blew hard, shaking Snoopy and keeping Bob awake worrying about whether it would blow away or turn over. We met our neighbors, who were a retired National Parks maintenance supervisor and his wife who has volunteered at Carlsbad Caverns for 20 + years. They knew someone in Corvallis who I actually knew - small world.

The next morning we woke up and walked part way up Guadelupe Mountain. The top photo is not Guadelupe Mountain, but El Capitan which is nearby. The second photo shows Guadelupe Mountain. The cacti were in bloom and the color of the sky was amazing.












The bottom photos are of a madrone tree and the bark of a tree.




We then continue on to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. When we got there we decided to open Snoopy to house Darwin instead of placing him in the kennel. I tried to help out and unlocked the roof. The wind was so strong that it flipped up the top, ripping the bungie cords, and landing on top of the car, breaking the end of the luggage rack. We couldn't get the lid/top closed again, but finally with the help of two park employees and a rope managed to close the lid. Darwin had to go into the kennel after all.

Carlsbad Caverns is spectacular. I hadn't been there for over 45 years and Bob had never been. Instead of guided tours, there are now two self-guided tours. You can rent wands into which you punch the number that is listed on a sign to get more information. The advantage is that you're not in a mob of people and can spend as much time as you want. The cave wasn't crowded. The cave is now lighted by a theatrical lighting designer and is very effective. It isn't really bright and focuses on unusual formations. I had forgotten how decorated the cave is. After about three hours, we left, heading towards Mountainair, NM, near Albuquerque.

The drive was realtively boring and when we arrived in Mountainair it was dark and cold and windy. It turned out that all the motel rooms and all the RV spaces in town were occupied by workers on a wind farm project about 20 miles away. We were desperate and the woman took pity on us and said that if we just needed an electric hook up, we could park in front of the office. We did so and in the process of trying to put Snoopy up discovered that I had damaged it more than we thought. It is bent and the four hinges inside don't close easily any more. By the time we got Snoopy set up we were cold and tired. The site was right next to the BNSF mainline and freight trains went past all night. However, we were glad we were warm.

Texas Hill Country

We left Port O'Connor Texas heading toward the Hill Country west of Austin. This was the area that Lyndon Johnson was born and lived in. This area was settled by Germans in the 1850s and the town names reflect this legacy. We stopped in Neu Braunfels looking for a restaurant recommended by the Sterns as having really good chicken fried steak (the Texas version of schnitzel). The restaurant was no longer, but was replaced by Friesenhaus, a German restaurant. There I had curry wurst (a northern German specialty) and Bob had pickled herring. Both were very good. There was also a bakery with great bread, but neon-colored napoleons, and German wursts.

We continued on and stopped at Guadelupe River State Park. The weather was warm and there were people still swimming in the river.






The river was filled with these wonderful mangrove-type trees.
We finally made it to Lost Maples State Park. We never figured out why it was called this, though I suspect it is because there are few places in Texas that have maples which change colors like fall trees in the northeast. This photo shows just a touch of color along the river in Lost Maples.

Port O'Connor Texas & Fishing

Among the friends we have stayed with on our travels have been people we met through Faith In Practice. First we went to visit David and Ruth Hamilton in Hot Springs Village Arkansas. David and Ruth were facilitators on earlier teams. They showed us around, fixed us wonderful meals and Ruth and I went into Little Rock to visit the Clinton Museum and the Old Arkansas State House. The Clinton Museum was fascinating, including a guided tour by Bill Clinton, exhibits organized on the basis of different themes and lots of memorabilia. There was little mention of the impeachment trial, except to explain it as a Republican attempt to get back at him for Democratic gains during the off-year elections. He made numerous positive comments about Hilary. It was striking to hear his view of diplomacy (meet and get to know leaders so that you develop a respect and can use that to encourage people to take unpopular stands) which stands in stark contrast to the present administration. Arkansas politics were the focus at the Statehouse. There are a lot of famous and infamous Arkansas politicians including Orville Faubus, Dale Bumpers, William Fulbright, and Bill Clinton. The League of Women Voters was founded in Arkansas, which was the 12th state and 2d southern state to sign the amendment giving women the right to vote.

We set off early Tuesday morning October 14 to get to Houston for the FIP Gala. Despite the stock market crash the previous week, about 500 people turned out and FIP raised about $347,000 gross. The next day we headed off to Port O'Connor Texas, where Joe and Vera Wiatt, the founders of FIP, live. We drove through a driving rain storm down to the Gulf coast. They live right on the beach.

This is a photo of the sunrise over the bay. When we arrived a cold front was moving through and there was a wind and the bay was choppy. Thursday night we watched the Coast Guard practice rescues in the bay with helicopters, boats and baskets.
Joe and Vera are avid fishermen and hadn't been fishing for three months. When the weather cleared up, they took us out wade fishing for Red Fish. You wear booties and wade through water that is mid-calf to mid-thigh deep. You shuffle along the bottom to scare the sting rays away and to avoid stepping on them. The goal is to cast you mullet (a bait fish which Joe caught with a net) into sandy areas where smaller fish would follow it and cause a Red Fish to come out. Both of us caught 24" Red Fish. This is the first time I've really gone fishing and I had a blast. Vera was my coach and I got to the point I could put the bait on my hook, though I couldn't tie hooks on when puffer fish cut them off or remove my fish. It was thrilling to catch these large fish, which really put up a fight. We went out for an additional half day of fishing, but were unsuccessful. Our grins show how happy we were. We then returned to dock where Joe and Bob cleaned the fish and we prepared a big fish fry. Yummy!
While Joe and Bob were cleaning the fish I watched the barge traffic on the intercoastal waterway. This is an artificial waterway that runs near the shore and is protected from the rough water of the Gulf. There is a lot of barge and boat traffic on it. While waiting I watched petroleum tankers and barges filled with gravel travel up the Intercoastal.
When the guys were finished cleaning the fish they threw the carcasses to the brown pelicans who gathered around. The pelicans are everywhere. This area is along the flyway and we saw brown and white pelicans, Great Blue and White Herons, Pink Spoonbills, ospreys, turkey vultures and lots of other birds I couldn't identify. The pelicans used to be endangered, but they aren't any more.