Ancestral Puebloans and the Desert

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Ancestral Puebloans
Or “Oh no, not another Roman Ruin!”

June 17 to Sun June 22

Why the subtitle for this piece? Well, when I was a child and my family lived in Turkey, this was a refrain my brother and I would chant, with a groan, when we stopped on our tour through western Turkey at places like Didyma and Miletus. Well - this was kind of what Max and Miles would say when they would ask “where are we going next?” and the rest of the conversation would go something like this: “We’re going to Mesa Verde.” “What’s there?” “Some really cool cliff dweller ruins, with ladders you can climb up to see them.” “Oh no, not more ruins.”

However, that being said, each time we actually got to a place and they saw how wonderfully different it was from the previous place, this notion that all ancestral Puebloan ruins are the same quickly disappeared, and despite having to be cajoled into coming along at points, when they did, they found the sights and occasional ranger talk interesting.

Chaco

We left Santa Fe for Chaco Culture National Park as early as we could manage (rousing Max being a special morning task not for the faint of heart) and were amazed by the flat terrain, decorated with subtle wildflowers and extravagant clouds. At the entrance to Chaco we kind of blew by the sign giving the phone number to call to see if the first-come-first-served campground was full, so we rumbled onward over an intensely washboarded road broken by the occasional cattle guard. This took a seemingly interminable amount of time, punctuated by a few prairie dogs, several cows wandering nonchalantly across the road, many long-eared jackrabbits, and tooth jarring bumps.

At last we entered the park, made our way onward toward the campground, and found a site nestled under rocks (which provided some much-welcome shade over the picnic table at certain times of day.) After setting up camp, and eating a quickly-prepared meal, we headed out to catch a ranger talk being held at Betatakin, one of the major buildings. That night was the night of the full moon, so the ranger, whose special interest is archaeo-astronomy, treated us to a detailed discussion of the ways in which the structures at Chaco seem aligned with certain astronomical phenomena.

Now I’m going to move into highlights and low lights mode.

Highlights of Chaco:

o Full moon, cool evenings, both the full moon and daytime Batatakin tour, especially learning about what is known and surmised about the ancestral Pueboans, and the incredible masonry and complex culture (for example that we know they traded far and wide because they had Macaw feathers from South America!)
o Miles seeing a badger on our evening petroglyph trail walk,
o The funny/not-so-funny lesson that we hadn’t read the campground board thoroughly and found out the hard way that ravens are extremely clever, can open an ice chest, eat an entire salami, sample the cherries and yoghurt, and scatter things all over the camp site!!

Low lights:

o The $300 petroglyph trail. We started out on the trail too late - only about ½ hr before dark. You’re supposed to be out of the park and off the trails by sunset. We had noticed a white SUV in the parking lot for the trail, but thought nothing of it. So, when we came off the trail, a ranger in said white SUV - unmarked - was waiting for us to fine us. Ok - that was the first $150. And we felt a little sheepish but were fine with paying it. Of course he could have gotten out of his car as we set off and warned us, but no, insead he laid in wait.

But the insult added to the injury was a fine for having trash in the car. Yes - an “open container of alcohol” - which was an empty beer bottle that was nestled down in between the 2 front seats along with two other bags of trash, which were somewhat obscuring our small car trash container. This was our trash and recycling that we were going to take to the Visitor’s Center on the way back. So this extremely annoying specimen of the Park Police gave us a second $150 ticket! Probably if we hadn’t handed him the bottle, he couldn’t have done it - would have had to get a warrant - but we were naive, just doing what the man asked - didn’t know it was a $@%#$ sting because this guy was bored and annoyed at being kept out late. Sigh.

A quick tour version of what came next: Mesa Verde

......was very interesting. Very hot. The campground was lovely -- near meadows full of wildflowers (esp. lupines)- and the tour of Balcony House was very interesting. The boys liked doing the ladder climb. Self-guided tours of other cliff dwellings and of canyon rim sites were also interesting - but hot. I walked around using an umbrella for shade. Rollie too.

After Mesa Verde, we drove to the Four Corners Monument, which is a tourist trap - but Miles enjoyed the concept - and we bought some “don’t ask don’t tell” jewelry too. Then onward through landscape a little like Monument Valley - just a bit less dramatic - to Canyon de Chelly. This was very lovely - the few overlooks we had time to see were stunning - and the valley below so lovely - especially where it was being farmed. Spider Woman rock was memorable - a huge pillar rising off the canyon floor. This is a site I would like to return to and take more time - pay to go down into the canyon with native guides. Part of what I’ve been doing as we travel is making mental notes about the return trip - areas I’d like to focus on that we were not able to give more than brief attention this time through. So far these include: Canyon de Chelly, Sedona, Moab, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase Escalante.

After Canyon de Chelly, we drove past Hubbell Trading Post - which was closed - so that’s another for the “next time” list - and by dint of crossing the border into Arizona, bought ourselves another hour in which to drive through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. However, as we didn’t end up with time enough to see it all, we got a motel in Holbrook, stayed overnight, and backtracked a little the next morning. This was, to my mind, well worth it. We have heard the Petrified Forest pooh-poohed, but I found it pretty interesting - and the boys did too.

After seeing the logs and taking the Blue Mesa trail (a wonderful trail through a fascinating, alien landscape with lots of signs explaining the geology of the area) we got back on the interstate and after a fine lunch at a Mexican place in Holbrook, went to see Meteor Crater.

Although this is a private site, with a way-too-expensive fee, it nevertheless proved much more interesting that it appeared to be at first. To begin with, the crater itself seemed deceptively small. But when we went down to the observation deck and looked through telescopes at a fenced area with a 6 foot tall human silhouette placed there to give you a sense of the true dimensions of the crater, and learned that something like 18 football fields could fit inside the crater, the trompe l’oeil little hole suddenly seemed more impressive. We didn’t take the guided tour, but watched a video about the crater that was well-done and toured the museum - finding the geology lesson quite interesting - especially the map showing where some of the largest known impact craters are located around the world.

Low lights of this part of the trip - Rollie and I had a doozy of an argument or 2 and I ascribe it mainly to exhaustion, heat, and the stress of a lot of driving over the course of a few days. Basically this part of the trip was too jam-packed as planned and another time I would give us more breathing room. But I did not drive off and leave him in the Painted Desert - despite the temptation - and I guess he didn't push me off a canyon rim - so it's all good.

Footnote: Rollie put a lot of time and effort over many weeks into calling and calling and being passed from person to person, finding out what we had to do to contest the ticket for the empty beer bottle. I wrote a letter. More calls were made. Eventually we were able to speak by phone with a judge who said that even though we were technically supposed to physically show up in court (someplace in Texas, I think), that the charge was ridiculous, for an empty bottle, so he would make it go away.

Next blog: Sedona and visiting Rollie’s friend Vince. South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Monument Valley.

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Photos

The Rio Grande
We follow the big river as we leave Santa Fe and enter a much more classically desert-like terrain, headed toward Chaco.

Nap Spot
Rollie and I found shade - and a little breeze - right near our campsite in a slot between two slabs of sandstone - so we rested in this ideal, if narrow, spot.

Kissing Rocks
My name for these two. Right behind our campsite.

Visitor
We were careful not to drop too many crumbs so as to keep this little fellow as wild as possible for an obviously frequent campground visitor.

Mesa Verde
Spruce Tree House

Spider Woman Rock
at Canyon de Chelly

Amelia and Rollie
Big petrified log on the Blue Mesa Trail.

Joe and Aggie's in Holbrook
very good food!

Comments

[Helen]

enjoying the blog
but missing you guys! I'm enjoying the gorgeous photos and the 'keeping it real' commentary. Say "Hi" to Max and Miles from his homey, and tell Miles Brian really enjoyed his 'shout out' to the Shannon kids.