Sun Soaked

We just hung around Lake Powell today and did nothing. We haven't had a day like this in quite a while. We got up this morning and read books, cooked breakfast, etc. until it got too hot to stand. Then we headed down to the lake. Lake Powell is a deep lake with canyon walls, so there aren't really any beaches like a typical lake, so finding a swim spot can be a bit challenging as we discovered. We parked near the marina and walked across the rocks to see if we could find a spot. The first place we found was this tiny sand pit deep in a hole in the rock. Bailey lost her footing and had no chance of recovery and just slid right in. So, we kind of followed suit – Phill being the most graceful of the three of us. There was a little ledge to get in the water, but it was going to be quite difficult to get in and out of (and had fish a little large for comfort for me swimming around). We decided it would probably be smartest to look elsewhere. Phill basically pushed me from behind until I could get up high enough to catch my footing to get out. Bailey was next and then Phill kind of ran and jumped and climbed his way out. I know it doesn't sound real graceful, but it was surprisingly impressive.

We walked a little further and found a nice rock ledge that flattened out for us to swim off of. Bailey was having the time of her life. And she's discovered how to jump into the water, rather than slowly walking in. It's like a whole new world opened up for her. I think this has been her favorite part of the trip so far! It was the ideal picture of leisure for us today. Swim a little, dry off on the rock ledge, jump off the rock ledge, drink a beer or two...wish you all were here!

We got back to the campsite tonight and realized that the wind broke our stupid tent poles. First water leaks in when it rains, then it crumbles with wind...what a cheap tent. Phill took some cardboard and string and rigged it back together. We dubbed it Gimpy now.

Free Range

We had our biggest day yet yesterday in terms of sightseeing.

We started pretty early from our campsite in Cortez this morning and headed toward Four Corners Monument (where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona all come to one point). It's not much of a monument other than a plaque on the ground, but we did stand in four places at once, so that was kind of cool. It was a quick stop – get out, take a few pictures, use the bathroom and head on your way. Of the four states, we picked Utah.

We drove into Navajo country with huge red rocks and canyons. We stopped in Bluff City, Utah for a bathroom break and gas. The town is most famous for twin rocks – two practically identical rocks (fairly self explanatory). It's all part of the Valley of the Gods. It's amazing how small you feel in the universe when you see some of this stuff. I can't imagine the weight on the rocks that make up the formation. We took a tiny side road to the historic section of town. The old houses they had there were made with an orange adobe-type brick which had a very southwest-ie feel, but then they had these gorgeous Victorian-type shutters and porches. It seemed kind of out of place, but they were really neat houses.

As we pressed on, we got a glimpse of Monument Valley from a long ways away! You see these odd shaped rock formations get larger as you get closer. The road to drive through Monument Valley is off the beaten path a bit further into Navajo country. We stopped at a small town called Mexican Hat just before we got there. It's called Mexican Hat because they have a rock formation that looks like a head with a Sombrero on top. A little abstract perhaps...

One thing Phill pointed out was the swirls and zig-zags of color in the sand on the mountain sides. Their shapes are similar to the patterns in a Mexican blanket. You can't help but wonder if this might have been the inspiration for their designs.

Monument Valley was strange altogether. You see odd rock formations all over the southwest, but I think what's striking about these is how tall and thin some are, and how they all seem to be placed together in this otherwise open desert. Again, you can picture exactly how this used to be the bottom of the ancient sea that once covered the area.

We made a quick stop for a snack at Goosenecks state park. The pictures don't do justice at all to the scenery. The pictures look very gray and the water looks muddy, but the sight was awesome! Over time, the river has cut huge canyons out of the rocks and left “goosenecks” still standing. It's kind of a strange sight.

We got to Natural Bridges National Monument in the late evening. We were starving by this point, so we found a little picnic area and made ourselves some dinner. We got our little cookstove out and heated up our bag of pasta and meatballs. Why haven't all of our meals been from a bag!?! It was delicious one-pot cooking! Ants were all over the picnic area though. Don't red ants bite? We weren't sure, but didn't feel like risking it. So, we did this kind of synchronized dinner prep walking and sitting on top of the table in order to avoid them. Considering the circumstances, it was a pretty smooth operation.

Natural Bridges National Monument has three main natural bridge formations in it. Natural bridges of this size were formed millions of years ago when sandstone was deposited and slowly uplifted as part of the Colorado Pleateau. Moving water eroded away the center of the rock creating the massive bridge. Arches are formed in a similar way, but more by the erosional force of frost and moisture. The bridges have been named several different times, but most recently were named after Hopi words after the park expanded to protect nearby Puebloan structures.

The first bridge we got to was called Sipapu Bridge, which means “the place of emergence.” The Hopi believed that the bridge was an entryway from which their ancestors came into the world. I didn't realize how much of a hike it was, so we did it in flip flops. Considering the hike is along rock edges, it probably wasn't the best idea. I walked down to the overlook point and Phill continued to the bottom of the canyon. From the lookout, I had a great bird's eye view of the canyon and the bridge. It is massive! The bridge is 220 feet in height with a 268-foot span, 31 feet wide and 53 feet thick. Phill was just a tiny spec once he got to the bottom.

We both hiked to the bottom of the second bridge, Kachina Bridge. It's about a mile and a half round-trip, but the elevation change is pretty significant. We got to the bottom and stood under the bridge. I had that feeling ain agof being so small and insignificant in the universe. The expanse of these bridges is unreal. We walked around a bit and headed back up the canyon.

The sun was starting to go down and we wanted to do the final hike to the Owachomo Bridge. Luckily, it was a relatively short hike. This bridge is only 9 feet in thickness now. Streams no longer erode away at it anymore, but frost and snow does. It's possible that a crack could send the bridge crashing down – or it may stand for another thousand years.

We stuck around for another half hour or so to watch the sunset and then headed on our way to Glen Canyon/Lake Powell. It was not a fun drive for Phill. There's flashing signs every couple of miles for free range cattle. Imagine hitting some farmer's cow in the middle of nowhere. Within 20 miles of the park, Phill saw headlights a long ways in front of him make a strange sweeping motion across the sky and then stop. By the time we approached, another car had arrived and I noticed something large on the side of the road. Sure enough, someone had hit a huge, black and white cow. Fortunately everyone was okay and they were able to pull the car out of the ditch. But honestly, what do you say to someone in that situation? “Hey man...sorry that cow came out of nowhere. Hope your night improves.” We pressed on.

On a side note, a cow's eyes don't have that reflective stuff in them that make most animals' eyes glow in headlights. Tricky...

We chose our campsite in the dark last night and set up as quickly as we could because we were very tired. But we woke up this morning with a completely uninterrupted view of Lake Powell. I guess we chose well. I can't wait to spend the day here. We have no plans...finally!

Ancient Ruins

We spent our entire day today looking at ancient ruins of Ancestral Puebloans.

Our first stop was Mesa Verde National Park. We really didn't know all that much about it and didn't really know what to expect. We were absolutely blown away. These people lived and flourished in this region over 700 years ago. They built stone communities in the cliffs of the mountains during the 1200s – much like the cliff dwellings we saw at Manitou Springs. They can use dendrochronology from the timbers in the dwellings to pretty closely determine the age of the building. Although there is very little known about these people, their craftsmanship and ability to build is amazing. They built phenomenal homes and communities in an area with a very difficult climate and landscape.

The dwellings that they built were beneath the overhanging cliffs. They were made mostly of sandstone that they shaped almost perfectly into bread loaf sized blocks. Their main staples were corn, beans and squash. They sometimes hunted for game, but archaeologists have since discovered that early years they hunted large animals, but that game appears to have been depleted in later years for these people. They used holes in the bricks to let in light a certain way as a means of a solar calendar, astronomy, equinoxes, etc. To think about the advanced society they presumably had. They think that prolonged drought was probably the primary reason that they abandoned their dwellings. Apparently one of the most important factors in selecting the location for these dwellings was where a seep spring was located, which is when precipitation goes into a rock and travels downward through the layers until it reaches clay and then has nowhere to go but out. In a drought prone area, this was essential. And we were also told that they selected the high up locations because average precipitation is actually higher there than in the valleys.

We took a tour of Balcony House, one of the two dwellings that you can actually go into. The views from there were gorgeous! It's a panoramic view of the entire canyon. We toured through a variety of rooms and saw a kiva – their ceremonial offering place. To get to the dwelling, we had to climb a 32 foot ladder. And then to exit, we had to go through this TINY tunnel. There was one section that was only eighteen inches across. Tight fit! The Puebloans used a variety of short ladders, but mostly used toe and hand notches in the rocks. You can see areas where the pecked out rocks exist. It's completely scary to think about. It's basically a tiny little hole in the rock for their hands and feet to scale the side of the mountain. Can you imagine? I wish I could go back in time and see these little monkeys all over the cliff sides.

After our tour was over, we just drove around the park a bit and explored. There are 4,000 dwellings in the park. At almost any given time, you can look out into the canyon and spot a dwelling. It's just very neat. It was a large civilization. At one spot we got out to see Cliff Palace. Oh my goodness! I don't even know how to describe it. It's just huge with countless rooms and kivas. We just couldn't take our eyes off of it. The most amazing thing about it though was its sheer size. We didn't take the tour to go inside, so I don't know a whole lot about it. I do know, however, that it was not actually a palace. It was a dwelling for many families and some level of government organization happened there as well.

After we left the park, we drove out to Hovenweep National Monument. It's ruins as well, but they're not preserved as well as they are in the park. The park has rebuilt some that have suffered damage. At Hovenweep, they are mostly in the condition they were discovered in. In some cases, very little of the original building is still standing. We took a great hike around the perimeter of the canyon to see the village. It was pretty hot out, but dry heat and bearable. We really enjoyed walking and see everything. Little lizards were running all over the place! The architecture is so good considering that they didn't have any tools for measurement.

We drove out to Canyon of the Ancients National Monument as well, but we were pretty worn out by then, so we only looked at Lowry Ruins. There were very impressive as well, but were mostly just a footprint of the building that used to stand there.

I'm writing this sitting in the truck so that I can hide from the mosquitoes. They're bad tonight. I don't think I'll venture out until Phill gets the fire started.

On the Road Again

We got up at 5:30 this morning and headed out to the Dunes Overlook Trail to watch the sun rise over the dunes. It was about a two mile round-trip hike. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, but the elevation was kind of kicking our butts. We made it though in time for the sunrise. As the sun started to come up, it hit just parts of the dunes, so it cast really neat shadows and light spots. We saw what we think was bear poop on the trail. Those warm fuzzies are back again...

We ate breakfast at this tiny little restaurant just outside the park. Since we're currently exploring the southwest, it only seemed appropriate to order their southwest favorite – a breakfast burrito with either green or red chili. Best ever!

We also stopped at several interesting spots in Pagosa County on our way to Cortez, CO where we plan to stay tonight. There was a great scenic overlook of a pretty rugged valley. And then we also stopped at Treasure Falls and took a small hike up to the falls. They were rushing with water and would get you drenched if you stood on the mist platform for long enough. We snapped a picture of Chimney Rock along the road because we never did see what road you were supposed to take to get up to it. And now we're just 60 miles or so from our destination tonight. I think we might end up staying two nights. It's been kind of busy so far, and we're tired of packing all this stuff up every morning. We'll go explore Mesa Verde National Park tomorrow.

Castles in the Sand

We made our way slowly to Great Sand Dunes National Park (the truck was a little reluctant on the mountain passes). It's strange though because as you come out of the mountains, the valleys are flat (like Kansas flat) and then you almost immediately get back into large mountains again. The scenery changes dramatically, and quickly.

Just outside of the Sand Dunes National Park is San Luis Valley. It's very expansive and flat, yet surrounded an all sides by 14,000 foot mountains. We got to our campsite, set up our tent and cooked some dinner. This park had signs everywhere that say things to the effect of: “Bear encounters frequent. Use precautions to avoid bear problems.” If that doesn't give you warm fuzzies...

After dinner, we took a walking trail from our campsite out to the dunes and walked around a bit. It's so strange. There's 700 foot piles of sand that look like they've come out of the middle of nowhere and been placed right at the foot of the giant Sangre de Cristo mountains.

So, where did it come from? Most of the sand originates in the San Juan Mountains, over 65 miles to the west. Streams, creeks, melting snow and flash floods bounced the sand grains to the foot of the mountains where they piled up. They're estimated to be over 12,000 years old. The dunes are the the tallest in North America and cover more than 330 square miles. And because of the winds, they're always changing. On any given day, they will never look exactly the same.

We walked around a bit and took tons of pictures. The wind was blowing pretty good when we were out there, so you could see how these are created and change. In the dry sand, your footprints are gone almost as soon as you make them. The sand itself is very fine too. You feel as if you're walking down a sandy, tropical beach. A bit further down we saw bear tracks headed in the same direction we were going (that giant paw was unmistakable), so we turned around and headed back. We made a fire with our eight pieces of kindling and went to bed.

Tap the Rockies

What a day! We've never seen and experienced anything like what we saw today. Where do I even begin...

We got up early this morning, cooked breakfast and packed up our campsite in dry weather. It's really amazing how much more fun camping is when it's not raining! The weather is great. In fact, Phill's realized that he has the beginning of a sweet farmer's tan on his left arm from the truck window.

We drove back into Colorado Springs to do some exploring. At the foot of the mountains, our first stop was Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings. Protected under a red sandstone overhang, there are authentic Anasazi cliff dwellings, built more than 700 years ago. The Cliff Dwelling Indians that resided here roamed the entire Four Corners area of the Southwest from about 1200 BC to AD 1500. In fact, a three-story Pueblo (where the gift shop now is) was later built by the Pueblo Indians and was inhabited all the way up to the 1980s. The dwellings themselves were an architectural wonder. We were astonished to think that their only resources was what the earth had already provided, yet their dwellings are amazingly advanced.

There was nothing off limits in there. We brought Bailey in with us and explored the entire thing. You can touch anything and climb in and out of their tiny windows and doors. The dwellings included rooms, kitchens, storage rooms, water basins, watch towers, etc. The majority of the second floor timbers have since fallen down, but you can see how the original construction worked.

Our second stop was Garden of the Gods. I think it might be the most stunning park that I've ever been to. It is, by far, my favorite place on this trip so far. I grew up surrounded by mountains, but this was even more than that. At the foot of 14,000 foot mountains, there's also these spectacular red rock formations – some of which are over 300 million years old. There's almost nothing that looks natural about the formations, but they're entirely created by the forces of nature over many, many years.

The first stop when you enter is Balanced Rock. It's an entirely bizarre-looking rock that seems to, well, balance precariously on the rock below it. Over 300 million years ago, the Rockies were carved through erosion. Streams were full of sediment that was eventually pressed and cemented into solid rock formations. Those rocks were either sandstone, shale or conglomerate. Balanced Rock was formed when the more delicate shale below was eroded away much faster than the harder sandstone and conglomerate above. Amazingly, the narrow pedestal that it sits on has held the 700-ton weight for thousands of years.

From there, we just drove around and explored the park. Some of the rock formations we saw included Kissing Camels and Cathedral Spires. From the visitor center, there's an incredible view of Pike's Peak situated perfectly between giant red rock formations. Apparently the view from Pike's Peak inspired the song “America the Beautiful.” The peak was named for Lt. Zebulon Pike, an American explorer and Lieutenant in the army. He and his men attempted to reach the top and failed due to a snowstorm. He noted in his journal that he believed no human could ever reach its pinnacle. Despite the failed attempt, the peak was still named after him.

Once we left Garden of the Gods, we headed toward the road to Pike's Peak summit. When we got to the entrance, the sign said that only the first 16 of 19 miles were open because of snow. From what we had heard, the spectacular views aren't until you get to mile 17. We figured it would be a 2-hour round trip and we weren't sure the view would be as great as we hoped. So...we decided against it and continued on our way to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Interesting little factoid: The air at the top of Pike's Peak has only 50% of the oxygen as the air at sea level.

The Plains

We made it to Colorado Springs tonight. The weather is incredible. Much better than the awful rain we'd been having.

In western Kansas today we saw signs posted for something called Castle Rock that we were intrigued by. You must understand that there's very little else that's real intriguing about Kansas, so it really could have been almost anything that we would have volunteered to sidetrack for. But at any rate, we drove off the main road on a search for some rock. We immediately went from nowheresville to REALLY nowheresville. We were riding along this terribly rocky dirt road with nothing in front of us. I was beginning to get very skeptical about anything interesting ahead. However, we pressed on and finally found additional signs to Castle Rock. As we drove closer, it looked so completely lame that we were truly broken-hearted at how many miles we had driven toward something so uncool. But when we got to the top and looked over, it was amazing! In the middle of these flat flat plains, these strange rock structures stick out of the middle of nowhere. They're so strange looking. There's one grouping that's actually called Castle Rock, but the rest is similar formations that I actually found even more fascinating than Castle Rock. It reminded us of the Badlands in South Dakota. I know the Badlands at some point in history was ocean floor. So, I imagine it's the same case with these. It looks totally bizarre and out of place though.

As we were leaving Kansas, we went in search of an 8,000 pound prairie dog we'd seen on a billboard. No luck, but a valiant effort nonetheless. Might have been the second most exciting thing in Kansas!

Then we finally made our way into Colorado via route 94. We saw almost zero other vehicles and the scenery was exactly the same for miles and miles and miles... Impressive nonetheless, but...the same. After the first twenty miles, you get the idea. It wasn't until we had our first glance of mountains that we had a ray of hope. And they were HUGE! We were shooting pictures out the window every chance we got. We're staying at a KOA in Fountain, CO tonight. We'll explore the mountains a bit tomorrow I think.