I've had this place on my must-see itinerary ever since my anthropology instructor last semester mentioned this place as the best view of ancient Pueblo dwellings still intact. We saw the dwellings this morning, as soon as the park opened at 8am, and did all the free tours we could do. That took about three hours.
Mesa Verde lives up to its Green Table name. The average elevation hovered around 7000' although the highest point was 8512.' All around me I saw flat tabletop peaks covered in pines and juniper, cut by deep canyons. It is amazing that people once made this tough terrain their home.
Yet I could have stayed there longer. I met a 50-something year-old brunette woman at the visitor's center who was inspired by my now 33-day roadtrip. Debbie is a local who's been raising her nephew ever since his mom got shot dead by a meth dealer and she was able to win custody from the drug-dealing dad.
"He's fifteen now but as soon as he's 18 I want to get in my car and hit the road and see all the parks!" she said.
"Just do it!" I replied.
We could have talked longer but then by 8:30am her bookstore was hit by tourists and she had to tend to them.
I have a National Parks Pass now so I didn't have to pay the $15 admission fee, and I was a little taken back by the additional $3 tour fees to see individual cliff dwellings. People were lined out promptly at 8am to buy the 9am tours, the first tours, as they sell out fast now that summer is here. By noon most of the dwellings are in the sun and it still gets hot at 7000' elevation.
I followed instead the Mesa Loop Tour, a six-mile paved road that stops at all the scenic overlooks and trails. Pinon pines, rabbitbrush and junipers line this road. In my opinion, for anyone in a hurry this is the one thing that should be done WITH a quick stop at the one free dwelling near the museum, the Spruce Tree House. (You see one cliff dwelling, you have seen them all, as the ancient Pueblo were rather predictable in their buildings.) I didn't want to leave Sadie alone for 90 minutes at a time to tour a dwelling. There is an additional 2.8-mile hike from the Spruce House to the Petroglyphs further down. Again, I didn't want to leave Sadie waiting. We had gotten our share of petroglyphs the day before in Nine Mile Canyon.
I stopped at one site that offered tours of the cliff dwellings, the largest in the park. The ranger, Albert, was from outside Boston and still owned to a heavy Boston accent. He played that up.
"We got the best corn in the country!" bragged Albert.
"No, we in Iowa do!" retorted an elderly gentleman.
And then there was me, remembering that sweet Indiana corn served annually at the Crown Point Corn Festival. Indiana corn's pretty good, too.
After Albert gave a rather lengthy safety briefing, reminding some of the clearly heavy people in the crowd that there is a 132-step ladder uphill at the end, and that a helicopter ride to Cortez is around $15,000, a few of the men stepped out of the crowd. No refunds are given for those stepping out.
"Once a day we have to carry someone back to the mesa for medical reasons." Several of the heavy people looked puzzling at each other. Would they be the first for the day?
The tour started promptly at 9am. Albert was the last to go down the steps. "Stop at the sign that says 'Yankee Fan Do Not Proceed Past This Point!" Kevin would have liked this older Bostonian.
I met a few interesting people on this loop trail. A family from outside Pittsburgh followed me around, stopping at every overlook, admiring the whiptails and wondering about the old Pueblo. They were taking a half day to see this place but had plans to leave by noon for the Grand Canyon.
They traveled by car from their small town that is 12 miles from the 911 crash site and the mine collapse from a few years ago. I saw them later at the cliff dwellings.
Another young couple was from California, looking over the canyons with their binoculars to find those hidden cliff dwellings. Some were so well camouflaged you couldn't see them right away.
I walked down the 1.2-mile r/t hike to Soda Canyon to see the overlook of other dwellings. A young rattler surprised me toward the end of this hike, determined not to let me pass. After I threw dirt at it it slithered off into the shadows of a brush, leaving me to pass it on the trail.
And then on the end of the Loop Trail I came across a small coyote that acted confused, sprinting along the road with traffic. He was a cute little guy, slightly undernourished, who stopped to pose for me until Sadie scared it into the roadside brush.
Despite the high elevation there were plenty of people around the Museum and gift shop. This was my end of the tour, opting now to drive on another 36 miles to Durango, CO.
Kevin and I had been here before in late May 2006 and the town was familiar. But instead of stopping in town I stopped at the Office of Public lands, where the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the city share one information office with free brochures. These information offices have been so helpful on my roadtrip for free maps and such. I talked to one helpful assistant, Bob, who recommended a few creek hikes near Durango. I wanted to take Sadie on a 4-6 mile water hike nearby.
But despite the helpful advice I ended up driving north on scenic US Highway 550 toward Silverton and pulled over at the first trailhead with "creek" in its name: Hermosa Creek Trail. I wanted to walk Sadie on a shaded riparian trail. Hermosa Creek was nothing like that. Although a scenic vista rim hike, half of the trail was exposed AND shared by horses, cyclists and motorcross people. Sadie was off-leash but close at hand. Whenever a hiker, cyclists or motorcycle came toward us, grabbed her by the harness.
Sadie was sick at the start, vomiting her chicken thighs I had fed her earlier. We rested three times going out, making the three miles almost 90 minutes long. The heat has been getting to her. We started out at 1:34pm, turned around at 3pm and made it back to the van by 4:40pm, where I cleaned up for the night. The shower bag was quite warm.
At first I had planned on driving back into Durango for dinner, but after watching Sadie suffer in this desert heat for two days now, I opted instead to treat her to more alpine hiking: I drove north on Hwy550 into Silverton, 50 miles north of Durango at 9312'. We had to surmount two passes at over 10,000'. The cooler temperatures cheered her up, Sadie became more animated, and I knew I had made the right decision to take her into the mountains one more time before hitting the deserts of northern New Mexico. I'm still a week away of ending this trip and I can rest one more day anyway. Why rush?
We had stopped in Silverton as well in May 2006, watching cyclists cruise into town after a grueling 50-mile tour over the alpine passes. Silverton was the finish line. We didn't stop for long, as Gunnison was our stop for the night, but today I got to see a closer look of this quaint former mining town. And to my surprise it does have its own brewery, the Silverton Brewery, right off Main Street!
I had 30 seconds before Happy Hour ended. I ordered the tasty Bill Wit's Belgian wheat, talked to my young server Helena, here for the summer from San Diego. Her cousin owns the brewery. She's working on her undergrad degree in clinical therapy and wants to join the military as such, but being the honest person that I am about the military, talked to her about getting her Master's degree first and then working for the Navy as a contractor instead. They make better money, don't have to put up with the military bullshit, and have more freedom on the job. (The downside is that they don't earn years toward a military retirement and don't get full medical/dental coverage). We talked for 30 minutes alone in the bar, after the last people from Phoenix left for the day.
I thanked Helena for her determination to help military veterans, she thanked me for my candid advice, and by 7:30pm I was back with a tired Sadie enjoying the sun set over the high peaks of Silverton. Kevin would have liked this view.
Mesa Verde lives up to its Green Table name. The average elevation hovered around 7000' although the highest point was 8512.' All around me I saw flat tabletop peaks covered in pines and juniper, cut by deep canyons. It is amazing that people once made this tough terrain their home.
Yet I could have stayed there longer. I met a 50-something year-old brunette woman at the visitor's center who was inspired by my now 33-day roadtrip. Debbie is a local who's been raising her nephew ever since his mom got shot dead by a meth dealer and she was able to win custody from the drug-dealing dad.
"He's fifteen now but as soon as he's 18 I want to get in my car and hit the road and see all the parks!" she said.
"Just do it!" I replied.
We could have talked longer but then by 8:30am her bookstore was hit by tourists and she had to tend to them.
I have a National Parks Pass now so I didn't have to pay the $15 admission fee, and I was a little taken back by the additional $3 tour fees to see individual cliff dwellings. People were lined out promptly at 8am to buy the 9am tours, the first tours, as they sell out fast now that summer is here. By noon most of the dwellings are in the sun and it still gets hot at 7000' elevation.
I followed instead the Mesa Loop Tour, a six-mile paved road that stops at all the scenic overlooks and trails. Pinon pines, rabbitbrush and junipers line this road. In my opinion, for anyone in a hurry this is the one thing that should be done WITH a quick stop at the one free dwelling near the museum, the Spruce Tree House. (You see one cliff dwelling, you have seen them all, as the ancient Pueblo were rather predictable in their buildings.) I didn't want to leave Sadie alone for 90 minutes at a time to tour a dwelling. There is an additional 2.8-mile hike from the Spruce House to the Petroglyphs further down. Again, I didn't want to leave Sadie waiting. We had gotten our share of petroglyphs the day before in Nine Mile Canyon.
I stopped at one site that offered tours of the cliff dwellings, the largest in the park. The ranger, Albert, was from outside Boston and still owned to a heavy Boston accent. He played that up.
"We got the best corn in the country!" bragged Albert.
"No, we in Iowa do!" retorted an elderly gentleman.
And then there was me, remembering that sweet Indiana corn served annually at the Crown Point Corn Festival. Indiana corn's pretty good, too.
After Albert gave a rather lengthy safety briefing, reminding some of the clearly heavy people in the crowd that there is a 132-step ladder uphill at the end, and that a helicopter ride to Cortez is around $15,000, a few of the men stepped out of the crowd. No refunds are given for those stepping out.
"Once a day we have to carry someone back to the mesa for medical reasons." Several of the heavy people looked puzzling at each other. Would they be the first for the day?
The tour started promptly at 9am. Albert was the last to go down the steps. "Stop at the sign that says 'Yankee Fan Do Not Proceed Past This Point!" Kevin would have liked this older Bostonian.
I met a few interesting people on this loop trail. A family from outside Pittsburgh followed me around, stopping at every overlook, admiring the whiptails and wondering about the old Pueblo. They were taking a half day to see this place but had plans to leave by noon for the Grand Canyon.
They traveled by car from their small town that is 12 miles from the 911 crash site and the mine collapse from a few years ago. I saw them later at the cliff dwellings.
Another young couple was from California, looking over the canyons with their binoculars to find those hidden cliff dwellings. Some were so well camouflaged you couldn't see them right away.
I walked down the 1.2-mile r/t hike to Soda Canyon to see the overlook of other dwellings. A young rattler surprised me toward the end of this hike, determined not to let me pass. After I threw dirt at it it slithered off into the shadows of a brush, leaving me to pass it on the trail.
And then on the end of the Loop Trail I came across a small coyote that acted confused, sprinting along the road with traffic. He was a cute little guy, slightly undernourished, who stopped to pose for me until Sadie scared it into the roadside brush.
Despite the high elevation there were plenty of people around the Museum and gift shop. This was my end of the tour, opting now to drive on another 36 miles to Durango, CO.
Kevin and I had been here before in late May 2006 and the town was familiar. But instead of stopping in town I stopped at the Office of Public lands, where the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the city share one information office with free brochures. These information offices have been so helpful on my roadtrip for free maps and such. I talked to one helpful assistant, Bob, who recommended a few creek hikes near Durango. I wanted to take Sadie on a 4-6 mile water hike nearby.
But despite the helpful advice I ended up driving north on scenic US Highway 550 toward Silverton and pulled over at the first trailhead with "creek" in its name: Hermosa Creek Trail. I wanted to walk Sadie on a shaded riparian trail. Hermosa Creek was nothing like that. Although a scenic vista rim hike, half of the trail was exposed AND shared by horses, cyclists and motorcross people. Sadie was off-leash but close at hand. Whenever a hiker, cyclists or motorcycle came toward us, grabbed her by the harness.
Sadie was sick at the start, vomiting her chicken thighs I had fed her earlier. We rested three times going out, making the three miles almost 90 minutes long. The heat has been getting to her. We started out at 1:34pm, turned around at 3pm and made it back to the van by 4:40pm, where I cleaned up for the night. The shower bag was quite warm.
At first I had planned on driving back into Durango for dinner, but after watching Sadie suffer in this desert heat for two days now, I opted instead to treat her to more alpine hiking: I drove north on Hwy550 into Silverton, 50 miles north of Durango at 9312'. We had to surmount two passes at over 10,000'. The cooler temperatures cheered her up, Sadie became more animated, and I knew I had made the right decision to take her into the mountains one more time before hitting the deserts of northern New Mexico. I'm still a week away of ending this trip and I can rest one more day anyway. Why rush?
We had stopped in Silverton as well in May 2006, watching cyclists cruise into town after a grueling 50-mile tour over the alpine passes. Silverton was the finish line. We didn't stop for long, as Gunnison was our stop for the night, but today I got to see a closer look of this quaint former mining town. And to my surprise it does have its own brewery, the Silverton Brewery, right off Main Street!
I had 30 seconds before Happy Hour ended. I ordered the tasty Bill Wit's Belgian wheat, talked to my young server Helena, here for the summer from San Diego. Her cousin owns the brewery. She's working on her undergrad degree in clinical therapy and wants to join the military as such, but being the honest person that I am about the military, talked to her about getting her Master's degree first and then working for the Navy as a contractor instead. They make better money, don't have to put up with the military bullshit, and have more freedom on the job. (The downside is that they don't earn years toward a military retirement and don't get full medical/dental coverage). We talked for 30 minutes alone in the bar, after the last people from Phoenix left for the day.
I thanked Helena for her determination to help military veterans, she thanked me for my candid advice, and by 7:30pm I was back with a tired Sadie enjoying the sun set over the high peaks of Silverton. Kevin would have liked this view.
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