We left at 7:30am expecting a long drive. We let the kids sleep in--Addisyn set herself up a fort so she has her own personal space. We made the kids get dressed when we stopped in Pueblo at SafeLite to fix a windshield crack. We just got it this morning, but it was right smack center and we don't want to risk a crack as we will have extreme elevation changes today. I practically begged them to fix it for us this morning rather than make us wait half the day for an appointment.
We passed three peaks through the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the highest was Wolf Creek Pass at 10,856' elevation and a hairpin turn on the down side. We unhitched the Jeep and it was still a slow incline of 30 mph for much of it. It took us almost 12 hours in all to make the 390 mile drive.
Now I know what a snow shed is--a quasi-tunnel on the edge of a mountain with a sloped roof like a shed so the snow goes over rather than on the road.
Matt & Marcy are one day ahead of us and leave tomorrow, but the kids got cousin pool time again and Annabelle was showing off and being crazy.
***WED 7/31 Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings
Marcy & Matt thankfully picked up some tour tickets for us so we didn't have to scramble this morning. We saw them off again this morning and then made our way to the Visitor center to pick up Jr. Ranger books so the kids could work on them on the 1 our drive into the park where the cliff dwellings are.
The Balcony House tour was pretty neat. It was only 1/4 mi long but challenging because of the huge ladders and crawling through tunnels at that elevation. We learned a lot from Ranger Mark in that hour; he was a good teacher portraying the lifestyle in a way that was relevant and we could connect with. He used Marissa as an example to show that if the Pueblo people lived to her age, they had a good chance of surviving to adulthood. In the same way, he volunteered two teenagers to show the age they would marry (he got a dirty look in reaction from the boy--ha!). At one point he had us circle around the kiva and I have to admit I was a bit nervous with me and my kids standing so close to the edge. The kiva is the large hole in the ground, considered very spiritual. The kiva was likely one per family and had a variety of uses.
I am amazed at how they got around on foot in that terrain. Living in the alcove probably kept them safe from the animals they hunted in the valley floor, and was close to the mesa above where they farmed. They practiced "waffle"/dry-land farming to create pockets where rain can collect. They only got an equivalent of 18in per year--and that counts run-off, snow melt, and seeping through sandstone.
I didn't realize that the rocks we climbed on were porous and permeable. It is sandstone, and water flows through it, seeping out and collecting at the shale layers in alcoves. Water would come from rain and storage from when the ocean rose this high millions of years ago.
Their homes were made of rock, mortar (made of sandstone, water, and ash), and trees. Much of what we saw was original, but they did have to rebuild so where we stood was stronger. We could see the layers in the original balcony with wood slats, cross beams, clay, and Juniper bark, the straw inside the mortar.
Yucca is used for making all kinds of things including baskets and shoes. I know we've seen yucca before but didn't make the connection, so I had to point some out when we walked outside.
On the drive back we stopped at the museum and the highest peak where the fire look-out is stationed. Then we helped the kids figure out the last questions on their Jr. Ranger books and were rewarded with 15% off at the store for completing it. Marissa took advantage of the discount and bought herself a puppet/stuffy deer with the last of her souvenir money.
We got back to camp in time for Chris to handle work and school in the afternoon. The girls and I rode bikes to the Animal Shelter at the end of the KOA driveway and even though we couldn't touch the animals, they had a great time seeing them and talking to them. The cats meowed and tried to reach out through the cages, the black one liked to go upside down through his cage. The 6-7 dogs were loud. Then they swam for a couple hours and went to the playground.
When Chris was done we went out for dinner--first Mexican food in months! We finally felt close enough to the culture and got authentic Mexican.
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