While Kasha-Katuwe was a geological site, our next stop – Bandelier NM – was back to the ancient Pueblo and cliff dwellings. The Ancestral Pueblo people here had cultural links with the people of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. (Since details of these cultures and related time periods have been covered in prior postings, I won’t bore you with all the details yet again!) It is just very interesting to us to see remnants of these societies in so many different locations – and see such similar sights. The Kiva, the same construction and room layout and dimensions and, of course, the cliff dwellings. It was a lot of fun to again be able to have such access to the cliff dwellings – we love the ladders;-)

Talk about culture shock – we went from Bandelier NM to Los Alamos!! That is right – the laboratory established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the nations’s top-secret program to develop the atomic bomb. There we eavesdropped on discussions of neutrons and electrons at the local Starbucks (NO joke!!) and visited the Bradbury Science Museum. This museum was quite interesting and shouldn’t be missed if in the area, as this is an important part of our history and the continued research affects everyone of us today. However, I must confess that I understood where the movies were shown and where the restrooms were and not much else. The brain went on overload after about 5 minutes!!

Moving west into Arizona, we spent a fascinating morning on a private jeep tour with a local Navajo tour guide of the Canyon de Chelly NM. Archeological evidence shows that people lived in these canyons for nearly 5,000 years. In later years, the same Basketmakers from Mesa Verde and other surrounding areas came here (200 BC – 750 AD). Followed by the Ancestral Puebloan people (750 – 1300) – predecessors of today’s Pueblo and Hopi Indians. Finally, the Navajo entered the Canyon around 1700. The Spanish and the Americans fought with them – ending in 1864 with Kit Carson’s brutal campaign to round up all the Navajo’s and march them over 300 miles to internment at Fort Sumner. This was after they destroyed all their homes and animals. In 1868, the Canyon was given back to the Navajo and they were allowed to return to their homeland. Today the descendants of those given the property in the Canyon still live there on their ancestors land. Our guide is one of those descendants.

The Canyon walls rise from 30 feet where we entered the Canyon to over 800 feet. There are many cave dwellings on the ledges of canyon walls, pictographs and stunning beauty.

Last, but not least (well maybe – this was not our favorite), was the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. This was again more of a ‘geological’ experience than a ‘people’ experience – no ladders to climb;-( Perhaps the most interesting factoid learned is that the petrified wood is not really wood! Two hundred million years ago conifer trees did grow here along the banks of the many streams that existed on a vast floodplain. The trees fell and swollen streams washed them into adjacent floodplains. A mix of silt, mud, and volcanic ash buried the logs and cut off oxygen slowing the logs decay. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits which eventually crystallized into quartz. The quartz was encased in the ‘cast’ of the tree and preserved as ‘petrified wood’. The various colors come from the minerals in the silica-saturated waters. Iron, carbon, manganese, cobalt and chromium produced patterns and blends of yellow, red, black, blue, brown, white and pink! This ‘wood’ is VERY heavy and VERY hard (7 on a 10 point scale).

Petrified logs.

The color spectrum in some of the petrified pieces were amazing.

Petroglyphs on the Newspaper Rock in the Petrified Forest.

Descending into the Blue Mesa.

There are several additional Great Houses and sites within the Chaco Culture NHP – all sites to see and experience.

Portions of the three story walls at Hungo Pavi still remain.

This opening is only about 2 x 2 feet – shows the building architecture.

But, after about 4.5 hours we were again maxed out on our attention span. AND, we had a good hour to get out of the park and back to Magic.

Perhaps you remember the statement at the beginning of this posting that the NHP is two hours from anything! I mean ANYTHING! We found some ‘RV sites’ (a questionable description) behind a ‘trading post’ about an hour from the park entrance in the middle of nowhere – and this was the closest thing without driving back north 2 hours or on to Albuquerque. We were prepared for what we got – and the space did the trick for the evening. We had an electric hook-up to prepare dinner and there were NO trees so the satellite worked just fine for Monday Night Football – thank goodness for satellite!!

The best view we could find from our parking spot.

Here is the actual view of our surroundings.

Tomorrow – The Balloon Festival!! We are sooooo excited!!

Ready to Fly – Elizabeth & Gary from the Middle of Nowhere

Back to the Anasazi in a minute – but on a lighter note – a fund raising project by the San Juan Mountains Assoc. had artists ‘decorate’ pumas for Public Art for Public Lands. This puma was done in the ‘style’ of the Puebloans of black on white and resided in front of the Center. I loved him and wanted to share –

Puma On Parade at the Anasazi Cultural Center.

Now, back to the Anasazi. Although the pueblo above was built in the early 1100’s, the Anasazi (a Navajo term given archaeologists, referring to the former inhabitants of abandoned cliff dwellings and pueblos), or ‘Pueblo ancestors’ (the two terms are now used interchangeably), emerged more than two millennia ago from a seminomadic hunter-gatherer tradition to practice agriculture and live in villages. From about 5,500 B.C. to 500 A.D., small scattered bands or family groups roamed the Southwest hunting small game and collecting edible plants, seeds, nuts and fruit. The acquisition of corn from southern Mexico shifted these people from nomadism to agriculture and was the genesis of the Anasazi culture.

As they progressed from a hunting society to an agricultural one, their architectural skills also changed as they became more tied to the land. They advanced from sheltering themselves in shallow pithouses under rock overhangs to building multistoried masonry pueblos.

Because of the many finely woven baskets found at their pithouse sites, the first Anasazi are referred to as Basketmakers. By 700 A.D. these early farmers were building above-ground attached masonry dwellings, or pueblos. Then the term Basketmaker is dropped in favor of Pueblo. SO –

Lowry Pueblo, part of Canyons of the Ancients NM – The Ancestral Puebloan people constructed this Pueblo around 1060 A.D. and inhabited it for about 165 years. Lowry began as a small village with a few rooms and a kiva. By the time the last families left Lowry and migrated to the south, the pueblo had grown to 40 rooms, eight kivas, and a Great Kiva. Access here was wonderful as we were able to walk the perimeter and enter several rooms.

The Lowry Pueblo.

The Kiva was a very important part of the life of the Ancestral Puebloan. It was a central gathering place for the family, storytelling and religious activities. It was always circular, below ground, had a place for a fire in the center and was entered through a hole in the roof via a ladder. (The ruins no longer have the roof in place – on occasion the roof has been replicated.) It appeared that each family would have a Kiva and there might be a larger one for the community. The picture below shows the Great Kiva of the Lowry Pueblo, which probably drew Ancestral Puebloans from several hundred square miles to conduct religious ceremonies. An interpretive sign quoted a Hopi woman who recently visited the site as saying that the two rock designs in the floor of the Kiva were the images of Summer and Winter. If you look at the rocks they do have the character of human figures.

The Great Kiva at the Lowry Pueblo.

Hovenweep NM – Here at Hovenweep (which means ‘deserted valley’ in the Ute language) most of the buildings still standing were constructed from 1230 to 1275 by the Ancestral Puebloan and are referred to as the Square Tower group. The stunning Square Tower and an intriguing collection of buildings are clustered along the rim of Little Ruin Canyon. Here we were able to walk the entire rim to view the sites.

The Twin Towers

Hovenweep Castle

Several of the Hovenweep Towers nestled around the canyon. Square Tower sits down in the canyon.

Mesa Verde – The real jewel in the crown of the Trail (at least so far). Cited as one of the world’s top cultural attractions, Mesa Verde was home to the Ancestral Puebloans for more than 700 years! Complete homes and entire villages have survived with many artifacts amazingly intact, providing a unique and thought provoking glimpse into America’s pre-European past. The cliff houses set in rock alcoves or tucked in cracks in the canyon walls do give a feeling of fantasy – a Disneyland of American archaeology!

Although hunter-gatherers certainly roamed these canyons for thousands of years, Mesa Verde was not permanently settled until around 600 A.D. At this time, numerous pithouse villages were home to extended families. By 750 A.D. they had begun building surface rooms of upright posts woven through with slender branches to form walls that were coated with mud. While cool in the summer, these structures provided inadequate protection from the sharp winds and deep snows of Colorado winters. So – small contiguous masonry rooms eventually took their place as living quarters. Mesa Verdeans lived in pueblos on top of the mesas until around 1200 A.D. when many people moved into the canyons to live in the cliff dwellings. By the mid-1200’s, these cliff dwellings housed about half the population of the Mesa. By 1300 these pueblos were vacant! The reason for the exodus is a mystery – but believed to be because after such a long habitation the natural resources were depleted AND a prolonged drought reeked havoc with the agricultural society (global warming in the 1300’s!!). One has the opportunity to see the full range of this historical period – from pithouses of 600 A.D. to cliff pueblos of 1300’s – here at Mesa Verde. Some – up close and personal!

Dwellings built in the alcoves along Mesa Top.

Sunset House.

A distant view of Cliff Palace-the largest cliff dwelling in the Southwest!

Getting closer.

Almost there.

More than 100 Puebloans occupied Cliff Palace.

Amazing to see this from such a close proximity.

As you can see, by the 1300’s the Kiva has advanced to a much more ‘finished’ ceremonial room. Now an air ‘intake’ is included to bring fresh air into the Kiva. However, to prevent the rush of air from blowing the fire out or blowing the ash around the floor of the Kiva, a rock panel is placed in front of the intake entrance. The fire pit is still in the middle of the room. In this picture, the ‘sipapu’ is also easily seen. This is the little round hole in the floor directly below the fire pit. Remember the bridge of the same name at Natural Bridges?? This is the ‘entrance’ by which the ancestors spirits are able to come and go. One can also see the benches and pilasters that held up the roofs. These Kivas were still covered with a roof, which had the entrance ‘hole’ using a ladder. However, these roofs have not endured the test of time;-(

Note the air intake hole at the rear of this Kiva.

We had to climb several of these ladders to get back out of the canyon from Cliff Palace.

Spruce Tree House, our next destination, is the third largest cliff dwelling among several hundred within park boundaries and was constructed between 1200 and 1276 by the Anasazi. This dwelling contains about 114 rooms and eight kivas and housed about 100 people. Again, one can actually hike to the dwelling and climb amongst the ruins;-)

Now we are headed down to explore the Spruce Tree House.

Three story apartments at the back of this section of Spruce Tree House. (Notice ladder down into the covered Kiva.)

The ladders lead down to Kivas.

The round structure below ground level is a Kiva without its roof. Look at the red and white ‘paint’ on the upper back wall.

These last several days have been awe-inspiring. Makes one wonder – why do we talk about history of thousands of years ago only existing in Europe?? As in the Coliseum, Parthenon, etc?? There are wonderful, amazing, overwhelming and ageless sites in our own back yard!! AND – our Federal Government has done the National Park system right. Just hope funding isn’t cut here too;-(

Well – hope the narrative hasn’t been too boring, but maybe a little helpful. AND – hope the pictures have given some feel of what we have been able to experience the last few days. AND – there is more of the Trail to come with a little Balloon Festival in between. But, now we have to pack up for another LOOOONG moving day – 36 miles!!

So – have a great week-end and we will talk to you again soon.

Overwhelmed – E & G from the Trail of the Ancients

Intermittent streams have cut two deep canyons and three massive bridges in sandstone formed from what was once the shore of an ancient sea. (Bridges are formed by rivers where the Arches such as those in Arches NP are formed by erosion.) Each of the three bridges has its own personality and age.

First on the trail is Sipapu Bridge, the second largest natural bridge in the world (only Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon is bigger) and the ‘Mature’ bridge of the three.

Here is what Sipapu Bridge looks like from the overlook. Let’s go down and check it out.

Each of these bridges has had several names over time. When the park was expanded to also protect nearby Puebloan structures, the General Land Office assigned Hopi names. In Hopi mythology, a “sipapu” is a gateway, or place of emergence, through which the Hopi believe their ancestors came into this world. The trail to the canyon bottom below Sipapu is the steepest in the park with staircases and ladders to aid in the descent –

Yikes, maybe we should have stayed up top. I’m not so good with high places.

The shadow people are back, checking out Sipapu Bridge.

The ‘Young’ Kachina Bridge was next on our agenda. It is considered the youngest of the three because of the thickness of its span. White Canyon floodwaters still work to enlarge its span as do rock falls, such as one in 1992 when approximately 4,000 TONS of rock broke off the bridge!! It is named for the Kachina dancers that play a central role in Hopi religious tradition. (Notice who is in front of this ‘young’ bridge!)

On the left hand side here you can see the 4,000 tons of rock that fell 19 years ago..

A view from the backside of Sipapu Bridge.

Last, but by no means least, is the Ancient – Owachomo Bridge. The streams that made this bridge no longer erode it, but frost action and seeping moisture do. The bridge may now have a fatal crack;-( Owachomo means “rock mound” in Hopi, and is named after a rock formation on one end of the bridge. (Notice who is in front of this ‘ancient’ bridge!)

A couple of old timers. The Owachoma Bridge and you know who.

Well – the hikes to all of these wonderful sights wore us out yet again. BUT – when the sun came up on Sunday, we were ready for more! So – off to The Needles district of Canyonlands. We, of course, took one of those scenic roads – Harts Draw Road – to get there. Along the way we enjoyed deer, lots of wild turkeys and the changing leaves of the Gambel Oak.

On the way into the Park, one has to stop at Newspaper Rock – perhaps a newspaper from over 2,000 years ago! This rock art panel is jam-packed with petroglyphs on the darkly patinated slab of sandstone from several Native American cultures – Archaic, Basketmaker, Fremont, Anasazi, Ute, and Navajo.

Newspaper Rock petroglyphs.

And, finally, The Needles district of Canyonlands, named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. The area covers a lattice of canyons, flat-bottomed valleys called grabens, arches, and spectacular sandstone walls notched by rocky spires and columns. A 6 mile round-trip hike to Chesler Park took us along ridges into the canyons where we walked among the ‘needles’ –

Heading out on a 6 mile hike over, under, around and through the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park.

Beautiful sights.

This grouping reminded Elizabeth of Russian stacking dolls.

The only arch we spotted on this hike.

This was the turnaround point on our hike.