Cliff Dwellings and the Bubonic Plague
Trip Start
Apr 15, 2006
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Trip End
May 15, 2006
Cortex, Colorado
Thursday, April 27, 2006
We arrived in Cortez and found a place to camp across the highway from the entrance to Mesa Verde. It was already about 8:30 in the evening so we pitched the tent and settled in for the evening. The next morning it was off to Durango where we found a camera along with a Starbucks and a great Gear Shop called Gardenswartz Outdoors. The town still has the cowboy feel to it and so we poked around for a while and had some lunch in a great Mexican restaurant. Then it was back to Mesa Verde where we took one tour through one set of ruins called Cliff Palace where we learned a little about the lives and culture of the Puebloan (sp) people who farmed the mesa tops and lived along the cliff edges. The ruins are very well preserved. We then spent the rest of the day exploring on our own and, as the pictures will show, there is no shortage of exploring to do.
The next day we were on the road again, heading to Four Corners, the only place in the U.S. where four states meet. It is now a "point of interest" run by the local Native Americans and includes the monument itself and a market where you can buy silver jewellery (much of it made in Mexico) artwork and local food. We ran around the monument so that we could say we visited four states (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona)in ten seconds, had our picture taken, shopped, ate a Navajo Taco and we were back on the road again. We wanted to get to Natural Bridges and one of the guys selling silver gave us a great route which led us through the Valley of the Gods which is a large flat expanse filled with many stand alone rock formations. We then had a crazy drive up the wildest road I've ever been on. The road, called Moki Dugway, climbs up what apears to be a 1000 foot cliff face. The one and one half lane gravel road switchbacks up offering some stomach turning views over the unprotected edges. From there it was a beautiful drive along the highlands to Natural Bridges. The camp site was full but a couple of Albertans took pity on us and let us share their site. They were sleeping in their van so were no using their tent pad. After setting up in the wind we took a drive around the loop to get a look at the three natural bridges for which the park was named. We slept through the windy night and go an early start the next morning and hiked down into the river bed for the 4 hour hike to visit all of the bridges from below. On the way we explored more cliff dwellings and found lots of petroglyphs on the canyon walls and the arches themselves.
It was still really windy that night and, after making dinner we were actually eating our pasta in the car. About 7:00 pm the ranger knocked on the window and advised us that they would be closing the campsite as they had found some dead mice in the campground and these had tested positive for the Bubonic Plague. With images of the Black Death wiping out millions of people in Europe we did not have to be coaxed any further. We packed up quickly and armed with our list of symptoms to watch out for, we headed for the nearest town, Blanding Utah. We enjoyed the hot shower and clean sheets but we were back on the road early the next day and heading west towards Bryce Canyon. I'll save that for the next entry.
Later
