Rollin' rollin' rollin'...
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| Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde |
We have wanted to see Mesa Verde ever since we lived in Phoenix for two years in the late 80's. It's the largest and most well-preserved group of cliff dwellings in the Southwest. Though the structures endured until we finally got there, the politics have changed. When we lived in Arizona, there was a small imbroglio over whether the Anasazi cliff dwellers (as they were then called) were the ancestors of the Navajo and Hopi, or of New Mexico's Pueblo tribes. Apparently the issue has been resolved in favor of the Pueblo and the cliff dwellers are now referred to as the "Ancestral Pueblo." Whew. Glad that issue is off the table. The structures are beautiful, haunting and are set in absolutely beautiful high desert canyons near Cortez, CO. Kate got a kick out of going up the ladders and squeezing through small passageways.
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| View down into a kiva, or ceremonial space. Beams for the roof sat on the columns. A fire was lit on the floor in front of the small wall that looks like an altar. It actually was a wind deflector for the draft that came in the small door. |
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| Dust storm in the Navajo Nation |
At various times we could see the smoke from the huge forest fires in northern Arizona to the south of us. Until we headed south, we didn't have to deal with anything but the wind, which was driving the fires there and creating dust storms where we were. At one point as we crossed the Navajo reservation we were stopped for construction behind the only other car for miles - which also had a Hawaii license plate.
After Mesa Verde we shot diagonally south across New Mexico to Carlsbad Caverns, south of the infamous town of Roswell. There was a lot of acrid smoke in the air until we got to Santa Fe, where it cleared and we had a beautiful lunch outside near the cathedral. Roswell is one one of those places that causes you to scratch your head and wonder why any human would want to live there, let alone aliens. It's a bleak, flat desert landscape. We decided to give the UFO Museum and "Research Center" a miss, though it would have been fun to see how they treated one of the great hoaxes of all time, the "secret" video of military doctors dissecting a dead alien.
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| The trail down into the cavern |
South of Roswell the land gets more interesting and resolves itself into the shoreline of an ancient sea at the site of the cavern. You can stand and look out along the shoreline - the only thing missing is the water, which drained away about 200 million years ago. In 1898 a 16 year-old by the name of Jim White was probably the first person of European descent to enter the cavern. Native Americans had utilized outer areas of it for millenia. White may have been attracted to the entrance by the massive flight of bats that exits every evening. Though he could have no idea of the cavern's size, White knew he was on to something. Within 25 years the site was designated a National Monument. Exploration continues today.
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| Looking skyward from the cavern |
The cavern isn't a cave in the sense we usually think of them. It's a series of enormous chambers, some larger than the interior of a cathedral. The trail spirals down through a series of rooms to the enormous Big Room about 800' below the surface. It covers an area larger than six football fields. At one end we gaped at the entrance to yet another huge space farther below us which has yet to be fully mapped and to have trails extended there. The cavern is a little disorienting - the mind refuses to believe the distances it's looking at. The usual cave features of stalactites and stalagmites are found in massive size. Dim clouds of mist gather at various places in response to changes in humidity and winds from the surface. When we emerged from the elevator that whisks you 80 stories back to the surface, we were again disoriented by the change from the cavern-scape to the sun-bleached desert above. We didn't have the luxury to savor the change; it was brutally hot.
When I contemplated driving our Toyota Sequoia across the country, I had piously thought we'd be very green and tool along at no more than 60 miles an hour, sipping gas and ignoring our wasteful fellow travelers. Nah. When you're out West, the distances are huge. My resolve lasted about 10 minutes once we left Scott and Laurie's in LA. At 80 mph, the miles click over in a satisfying way but the fill-ups were painful on long parts of our drive, where we would sometimes spend $150 or so on gas in one day. We look forward to selling the beast in Maine and to not having a car for the rest of our year away.
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| Kate makes friends with Leo, Tim and Melissa's cat |
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| Tim and Molly at Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs |
My cousin Tim Jamison, his wife Melissa and their three beautiful kids Molly, Luke and Kate were our hosts in Colorado Springs. They have an incredible view from their house in the hills above town. We mostly talked and did short activities with the kids for the two days we were there. It was so good to see them and to catch up, as I hadn't seen them since Tim and Melissa's wedding in Yosemite about 10 years ago. Having little kids definitely affects mobility!
On June 12 we reluctantly took our leave and began a major push east to Boone, NC for our next reunion, this time with my nephew Joe Klein, his wife Holly and their children Zach and Greta.
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