A Quick Trip to Mesa Verde National Park

 We were in southwestern Colorado for a beautiful family wedding, and decided to take advantage of being close to Mesa Verde and swing over for a visit afterwards. We started at the Visitor Center, located just off the highway. It took us a little while to figure out what the statue was--an Ancestral Pueblo Indian climbing with a basket.

Then we headed up the steep road. I remembered visiting Mesa Verde when I was 15 years old. On that trip, we talked with a bicyclist who had come up the many switchbacks. We asked how he did it. He responded, "I ate a Snickers at the bottom, and that gave me energy." Funny how I remembered that!

Decades later, the road was steep, but not nearly as much as the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive in Great Basin National Park. And we were there in the hot afternoon, so we didn't see any bicyclists. We did stop at nearly every overlook. Here's one with a great view of the Mancos Valley and the San Juan Mountains in the background:

Next we went and visited the Fire Tower. Desert Boy declared he wanted to be a fire lookout for a summer. He may have changed his mind a bit when we told him usually there's no cell service or wifi at a fire lookout. 

He had a lot of fun using the scopes to look at far away things, like Shiprock to the south.

Next up we checked into the Far View Lodge and rested a bit. It was hot, so it was nice to take a little siesta. Then we got up and headed to the Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum and the views of Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling. Due to rock fall we couldn't go down to it, but we did get a nice view.

We found a shady spot and contemplated the cliff dwelling, built about 1200 AD and inhabited for about a hundred years.  Then we went in and watched a video, which was a quick way to assimilate some of the history. The exhibits looked at least 50 years old and were of the pottery-lined-up-along-a-shelf type. I was a little underwhelmed.

 Then we headed to the Mesa Top 6-mile loop drive and stopped at each of the pullovers. Doing it at about 6 pm on Labor Day Weekend worked out pretty well; most people had already left for the day. Plus we got some great light. The Square Tower House was especially striking.

Although there are many cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, there are many mesa top sites, where people lived earlier. Some of these sites were protected under roofs.

But the cliff dwellings really captured our imaginations.

What would it have been like to live so close to your family? 

We visited more places and then headed to the cafeteria at Far View Terrace just before it closed to eat dinner. The soup was especially delicious. And they have ice cream! Desert Girl and I walked back to the lodge from there, seeing the old visitor center and walking under the road to walk up the winding ramp to it. We realized that it looked like an old kiva.

 The lodge was very nice, and we had great views from our room.

We were a few days past the new moon, so a crescent moon was hanging out to the west. Desert Girl and I went out on the balcony and watched Jupiter and Saturn appear. Then we saw Antares, the red star in the constellation Scorpius. And not long after, we could make out the asterism the Teapot just to the east, pouring out the milk into the Milky Way. I tried a Milky Way shot from the railing and found there was a lot of light pollution.


I wanted to do some night sky photography in the park, but all the cultural sites are closed at sunset, so we made do with getting a photo of the kiva-like old visitor center, with Desert Girl looking up to the sky.


The next morning we got up early because we had reservations for the Early Bird Cliff Palace Tour. This was one of the few cliff dwelling tours we could reserve in advance, and knowing it was a holiday weekend and we had limited time, it worked out well for us. The view from the overlook was amazing. Cliff Palace was the largest cliff dwelling in the area, home to about 100 people. We imagined our town in there. Yikes!

While we waited for the park ranger, I noticed this Utah juniper that was barely alive. I went to investigate and found some nice stripbarking, where just a little bit of bark keeps the tree alive. We see it often in the old bristlecone pine trees. 

The the tour started, and we went down some stairs and then up a ladder.

This led us to another great view of Cliff Palace.

We were the first ones there that morning, so it was nice and quiet, and we spent a couple minutes just being quiet and observing. Then the ranger helped us learn lots more about it.

Nowadays oak trees and shrubs border the cliff dwellings, but back about 800 years ago, most of the vegetation would have been cleared for buildings and fires.

Next we walked right next to some of the walls, observing how they used the rock that had fallen in the alcove to construct the buildings. The mortar was made of the nearby dirt, which had an ideal ratio of clay and sand.

We were about to get even closer. The kids were right up close to the ranger!

We looked at some kivas.

And then we looked in this four-story tower.


Way up there, we could see that not everything was monochrome--there was some white and red paint preserved. How cool!

I spent some time looking carefully at the mortar and found at least three different types, mainly due to different restoration techniques.

A parting look through a window.

I wanted to linger longer, but it was time to go.

We walked past the ladder and long grab-it tool to retrieve things that people drop into the dwellings.

Then it was time to go up some steps and ladders to get pack to the parking lot.

The Ancestral Pueblo people had used toe and hand holds to climb out. I don't think climbing out would have been that hard, but climbing down would have been a different story! 

We really enjoyed our brief visit to Mesa Verde National Park. There's still more to do--Balcony House, plus all the sites on Weatherill Mesa. And there are a few hikes that we didn't do. There's no backpacking or cross-country hiking in the park, so it wouldn't take too long to see all the permitted places. But it certainly takes a long time to process the amazing amount of history that the park protects. And it's so fun to imagine a very different way of life than is now in the area. One thing that was repeated to us is that the area used to have many more inhabitants than it does now.

If you have a chance, check it out! We'd love to go back and see the many other cultural protected places in the area.

Hinckley Rodeo

 In July we headed to the Hinckley Rodeo one Friday night. It had been long enough since we had been to a rodeo that Desert Girl couldn't remember the last one (she was a baby at this one). This is a small town rodeo, but it sure had plenty of excitement. The bronc riding featured a couple people we knew, and one of them won!

I'm fairly terrified watching.

They also had some events that weren't scary, like the calf money chase. They duct tape some bills onto some calves, then all the kids chase after them.

And they're off!

Of course the calves don't want to be by all these running kids, so they run away.

But eventually the kids caught up with the calves and pulled the money off.

There were more events like barrel racing and roping, but I just had my phone so didn't get great photos. The night ended with the bull riding. Here's a view from behind the chutes as the riders were getting ready.

 And then they went, trying to stay on for that magical eight seconds. I have to say I'm really glad that our kids have no desire to do this. Having them participate in a kids rodeo  a few years ago let them see more of the reality of a rodeo. Nevertheless, it's fun to go and watch occasionally.

Awesome 3.5-Mile Loop in Great Basin National Park: South Fork Baker

 I wanted to do a short hike in Great Basin National Park, so I headed up to the Baker Creek trailhead. My plan was to go 1.6 miles up that trail, then take the cutoff to South Fork Baker and come down that. Altogether, it's about 3.5 miles with some elevation gain (like just about every trail in the park!).

The trail starts through low vegetation, with distant views of mountaintops.

Since it was early August, the flowers were very different from those blooming in June. Here's sulphur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum), so bright yellow that it really stands out.

And this little white flower with the long bladder behind it is Douglas' Catchfly (Silene douglasii). I don't see it often, so I was pretty excited.

This buckwheat looks so different from most of the others, and it's found in many places in the park in the 8,000-9,000 foot range. It's Redroot Buckwheat (Eriogonum racemosum). It grows up to one or two feet high, and the pretty pink flowers grow along the stems.

As the trail goes higher, you leave the switchbacks through the sagebrush steppe and enter the riparian area. Aspens line the trail. 

And at 1.6 miles, you come to a sign and a bench. The sign points the way to the South Fork Baker loop. The bench is a new addition this year.

Nestled among the conifer needles on the forest floor is Longstalk Starwort (Stellaria longipes).

Then it was time to cross Baker Creek on the footbridge. The creek has gone down a lot from its peak flow in June.

 It's a steep uphill from the bridge up to some ponderosa pines on the ridge. Then it's a gentle descent into one of the most beautiful places in the park, the big South Fork Baker meadow. The trail runs along the edge of it, dancing into the aspens.

The Timothy (Phleum pratense) looked really cool backlit.


I also noticed this big, blooming bush. I didn't know what it was, but when I uploaded the photo to iNaturalist, it suggested Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa), which I think fits. 

South Fork Baker Creek is such a pretty creek. For a short stretch, the creek is right next to the trail. Then it starts cascading down a steep section.

I spotted a glimpse of red, and it turned out to be Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa).

Somewhere along this next section of trail, I heard a "Hello," looked behind me, and found a trail runner. I stepped to the side so he could pass. He was the only other person I saw on the loop.

This bush was another surprise for me, but fortunately iNaturalist helped me out here, too. This is Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor).

This Fritillary butterfly was hanging out on the sulphur buckwheat.

Near the trailhead I found some Seep Monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata)--apparently there's been a genus name change. Generally scientific names stay the same and common names can vary. But once in awhile, someone takes a closer look at a group of flowers and finds out that they are in a different genus. DNA analysis has been changing things extra fast over the past 20 years. 

And I'll end with a favorite: Columbia Monkshood (Aconitum columbianum).

This is a very fun trail with lots of variety, and differing wildflowers all summer, so it's worth doing more than once.

If you're interested in using iNaturalist, there's a Great Basin National Park page set up. And I've been impressed with how you can upload a photo of a plant, animal, or insect, and it will give you some best guesses.