RV Trip'N

Friday, May 11, 2012

More Ruins

View from Mesa Verde

We stayed another day at Mesa Verde, after having breakfast at the Park's outdoor restaurant, we decided to head down to Hovenweep National Monument.This is probably the most remote place that we have been.

On the way we passed free ranging cattle and wild horses along the road and herds of goats and sheep that the Navajo people tend, one herd was being shepherded entirely by one lone border collie. The desert was blooming at this altitude and smelled so beautiful. Only a small portion of this park is on paved roads the rest is high clearance vehicles only and only during dry weather.

We were able to take a two mile loop trail to some very old and beautifully preserved ruins. They were built by the ancestors of today's Pueblo Indian tribes and have not been inhabited for over 700 years. We will be heading out of this area tomorrow but don't know where we will end up..

Some Fancy horns

Watching over his flock

Wild horse

Desert Rose

Hovenweep Castle

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Balcony House

Cliff Palace

Today we are camping at Mesa Verde National Park, we are alone in the section of the campground we are set up in, just us and a small group of mule deer grazing all around us. The park opened up for the season today at noon, there are over 300 campsites, in the winter months only one loop is open.

We have been here before and toured the Cliff Palace dwelling, which is the largest cliff dwelling in the park. We decided to tour the Balcony House today. This is a ranger led tour and is the most challenging cliff dwelling tour, it leads to a smaller dwelling thought to be home to two families It was a very interesting tour, due mostly to the passion of the ranger that was our leader, he was from the area and really had a feel for the ancient people who built and lived in these magnificent houses over 800years ago. The tour started with a 32 foot ladder climbing up a vertical rock cliff than ended with a 12 foot narrow cave and another latter and finally steps carved into the stone face up to the top. The trick was to never look down and it works.

Balcony House


Ladder Climb

Getting from room to room was difficult

Moving between rooms

Mesa Verde Overlook

Ladder Climb

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Change of plans

Canyonland NP (previous photo)

Today we drove into Canyonlands National Park, Needles District, we got to the park by 8:00 am and found a campsite, unfortunately the campsite was impossible for us to back into, and by the time we gave up on it the small campgrounds was filled. We went on to Cortez Colorado, we are at the Sundance RV Park.

I found a Great Clips and had a very nice young lady cut my hair. We are just relaxing today and tomorrow will go into Mesa Verde National Park. We did get a chance to take some pictures this morning hope you enjoy them. (Some of the photos are from a previous visit.)

Canyonland NP (previous photo)


Canyonland NP (previous photo)

Newspaper Rock

Wooden Shoe Arch

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Arches National Park

We decided to stay another day at Spanish Trails Campgrounds, It's close to everything and today we went into the park, Moab sits right at the entrance to Arches National Park. Rich has always wanted to hike the Devils Garden Trail, it's a seven mile trail to to seven arches, the first two miles are easy then you have to get on a primitive trail that is very difficult. At times I thought I wouldn't be able to continue, but the thought of going back was not an option. In some areas you had to scramble straight up on slick rock, very scary, and across very high narrow switch backs with shear drops on each side. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself, and the arches were beautiful, well worth the trip.

Tomorrow we probably will be going into the Canyon Lands so I don't think we will be blogging for awhile. It's a pretty remote area but you never know. Enjoy the pictures.