Mesa Verde National Park

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I haven’t written for a few days because I was feeling a bit sick and stayed in hotels to get over my bug. I’m back to normal now, thankfully. I was basically just hanging out in Jackson Hole waiting for the weather and myself to get better.

Before I got to Denver, Colorado I stayed in the most amazing National Park called Mesa Verde, just on the border to Arizona and New Mexico. I have seen docos on Mesa Verde on the History Chanel and always wanted to come here. I’m sure when you see the photos you recognise it as well. The Ancestral Puebloans decided to move to the canyons of this area and build little buildings/towns into the caves. They were farming the land above about 1400 years ago and now they are called the ‘cliff dwellers’. I was talking to a Ranger and asked if he knew why they built those wonderful buildings but he said that it wasn’t really clear. Some people say it might have been to protect themselves from other tribes etc., but there was no evidence of any rivalry or war. So … they don’t know.

I did a lot of hiking on that day and I remember when I drove back to the campground it was sunset and getting dark. My feet were hurting really bad because you have to go down on ladders to have a look at the ruins etc., and of course, you have to go back up again. I’m not good with that kind of climbing, however, I saw my first wild horses that evening and I cannot tell you how happy that made me. I was driving alone, shouting at myself at how bloody lucky I was when I saw a coyote only a few meters away from me sauntering down a hill. A really fat and happy one with healthy looking fur. I took a few photos and I do believe he was posing for me, shaking his butt. I got back to the camp and just sat there, watching the sun go down and feeling content and blissful.

The next day I took off to Denver to see my friends Darren and Natasha for dinner. I hadn’t seen them for about 10 years and I drove all day to get there. I was so tired when I arrived there but they took me to a lovely restaurant where I had Bison Nachos and a Bison Burger. Delicious. Besides going downtown to see the ‘Blue Bear’ (I’ll explain when I get home) I didn’t stay in Denver long. Darren and Tash are climbers and they told me to go to Grand Teton National Park on my way to Yellowstone and that’s what I did.

Driving through the flat lands of Wyoming was a bit of a shock to me, though. All they do is mining the bejeesus out of that land. It took me a while to realise what was going on, stupid me thought they were water towers at first, but they are fraking for gas. EVERYWHERE! It must be completely hollow under all that land and when I had dinner at a place called Rock Springs, I felt like I had arrived in Mount Isa: only buff-headed guys at the bar with baseball caps. I always thought Wyoming was a farming state etc., but I guess I was wrong. Apparently they have been mining for all sorts of minerals and oil here for ages. I learned something there. Not only that, they have huge walls and fences around the highways to keep the wildlife out. I suppose not to protect the proghorn antelopes, deer and whatever cross the highways and kill themselves, but to stop them from running into their precious trucks and automobiles. I was quite saddened by that but I have to admit that they have way less road kill on the side of the street than we do.

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