The Ancients

 

   When we're not in a hurry, we adopt pretty slow travel. We had a week to get to Uncle Vern's birthday party in Mesa so I told the GPS to avoid highways, toll roads and ferries. We were leaving from Denver's south side and I was surprised how rustic a route the map assistant (I'll call her Siri) chose for us.

  Siri’s road took us through rocky, wooded canyons and up steep hills. I wondered how much longer our top speed would be 35 mph. But eventually we got on a southbound four laner, not a true interstate. As the road climbed higher it turned to two lanes, but there were frequent passing areas for passing  slow pokes.

  We spent the day climbing into the mountains and over passes at eight or nine or ten thousand feet. When I saw a restaurant in the late afternoon called The High Plains Café, I realized we had just crossed the Rockies. How the pioneers had labored for weeks over what we drove over in a day. 

  Our goal was Mesa Verde National Park in southeastern Colorado. We drove into the park and headed up onto the mesa towards the famous cliff dwellings. The road was mostly vertical and it was too late to see anything so we retreated to the nearby town of Cortez.

  If you like Mexican food, the Southwest is heaven. It always surprises me how intensely Hispanic the area is, though it shouldn't if I remember this was once all part of Mexico. We signed up online for a 9:30 am tour of the Long House site in the park. The confirmation email said it was a 1.5 hour drive from the park entrance to the trailhead down to the cliff dwellings. Plus we were to be there 15 minutes early for safety instructions.

   I carefully calculated these times and we left the motel extra early. It was 21 miles from the park entrance to what I thought was the trailhead. We could see a tent and a ranger nearby and I tilted back my seat and relaxed. Teresa decided to walk down to the ranger. Soon she was hollering for me to get moving.

  It turned out we still had to hike three-quarters of a mile to the trailhead down to the ancient cliff dwellings. We quick stepped across the mesa, and made it just in time for the safety instructions. We were told to be sure to have water. It’s a little late to tell us that now. Common sense you might think.

  We were descending the trail the equivalent of a thirteen story building. As we came around the trail, the dwellings beneath the arc of the cave revealed themselves. It’s hard to describe my feelings upon seeing this place I had thought a lot about. Deeply moved would sum it up. 

  Meredith, our enthusiastic young guide, put life into these ruins. Hear the people talking, she urged. Hear the barking of the dogs, the turkeys clucking…

  We then walked back up our 13 story building. I would have been puffing even if we hadn’t been at 7,000 feet. Crossing Mesa Verde off my list of “must sees” left a big gap. But Teresa had another point of interest to fill the hole: Canyon de Chelly. Say “Shay” and not “Shelly”, or even worse, “Chelly”. 

 The canyon is in northeastern Arizona in the Four Corners region. It’s a National Monument administrated by the government and the Navajo Nation. 

  After Mesa Verde, we drove down to Arizona via a bit of New Mexico and an unexpected range of very beautiful mountains. We got a room at the Thunderbird Motel on the reservation. The next morning we drove along the south rim of the canyon.

  There are numerous places to pull over and gawk at almost half a billion years of natural history. People say Canyon de Chelly is not as great as the Grand Canyon, but it’s certainly worth a visit if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

  We were done with the canyon by noon and beat it on down to Mesa for Uncle Vern’s party on Saturday.

Ship Rock, New Mexico