Lee and Elaine's RV Adventures

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Mesa Verde National Park

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

COLORADO

September 20 - 24, 2015

By the 1880's and 1890's, several of the cliff dwellings had been partially excavated. But, as in today's world, people began helping themselves to artifacts. Several prominent women started a campaign to preserve the history and partly because of their efforts, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill that created Mesa Verde National Park in 1906. It contains some of the best preserved sites of the Ancestral Pueblo People, formerly called Anasazi, who lived there from A.D. 550 to A.D. 1300. There are almost 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.

In front of the Visitor's Center

View from Visitor's Center

From about A.D. 550 to A.D. 750, the people lived in pit houses, dug into the ground on top of the mesas or in alcoves in the cliffs. They were quite prosperous for their time, farming corn, squash and beans, hunting and gathering edible and useful plants and they were very good basketmakers. By A.D. 850, most people had moved to dwellings above ground but still used the underground kivas for ceremonies and other rooms for storage. By A.D. 1000, they had perfected their building skills and built houses of stone masonry. Their skills as potters also evolved. The cliff dwellings came back into fashion about A.D. 1190 and lasted until the Ancestral Puebloans disappeared from Mesa Verde about A.D. 1300. It is unknown why they left, but of course, there are several theories. Perhaps it was because of a long drought and crop failure, perhaps they depleted the soil of it nutrients by farming and did too much hunting or maybe there were political or social problems. It'll remain a mystery forever.

An underground ceremonial room called a kiva

Sunset House

Spruce Tree House

Morefield Campground

One of those old, dead trees I find so interesting!

Far View Community

Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling, has 150 rooms and 23 kivas

Balcony House, as seen from across the canyon

The stairs at the beginning of Balcony House tour

The ladder in the middle of the tour

The ladder at the end of the tour!

Balcony House

Wetherill Mesa, the "quiet" side of the park

Long House cliff dwelling

I cropped the picture (above) in my photos so it would show the dwelling but when I inserted it into my blog, it used the original picture. If anyone knows why and how to correct this, I would love to hear about it!

A small part of Long House

I think he was alerting his friends we were in the area!

Shiprock, a sacred Navajo mountain in New Mexico
near the Four Corners region, rises almost 1,600
feet above the desert floor

Four Corners monument, where Arizona, Colorado,

New Mexico and Utah meet

Four Corners, where it currently costs $5.00 per person
to enter. Take a picture, then shop at all the Navajo booths
surrounding the monument

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Temple Square (Salt Lake City), Canyonlands and Arches National Parks

September 12, 2015

After leaving Great Basin National Park and before heading onto Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, we decided to take a little side trip to Salt Lake City and visit Temple Square.

In 1847, Brigham Young led a group of pioneers to what is now Salt Lake City. They had fled to a place where they could be free from religious persecution. The building of the Mormon Temple took from 1853 to 1893. Visitors are not allowed in the temple but the other buildings were open to explore.

Across the street from Temple Square is City Creek Center, a very large shopping mall that opened in 2012. Prior to that, an old mall that had been built in the 1970's was slowly deteriorating, as is common in downtown areas of many cities. The Mormon Church wanted to revitalize downtown so they purchased the property in 2003 and started planning a retail, office and residential complex. Our Temple Square tour was on a Sunday, so imagine our surprise when we got there, the shopping center was closed! Oh, well, it saved me money!!!

Mormon Temple

Another view of the Mormon Temple

Angel Moroni, atop the temple, was the guardian of
the "golden plates", which is the basis of the
Book of Mormon as interpreted by
Joseph Smith

Gardens is Temple Square

Temple Square

The Tabernacle, we were there during a rehearsal by the choir.

The acoustics in the Tabernacle are simply amazing. On our tour (Lee and I were the only ones in the group!) our guides demonstrated how sound carries by tearing a piece of paper and by dropping a pin. They were on the stage near the piano and we heard it very plainly with no sound amplification.

The Assembly Hall

The Lion House, the residence where Brigham Young's wives
and children lived.

The Beehive House, where Brigham Young lived and had offices

September 14, 2015

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Established in 1964

We spent six nights camped at Horsethief Campground, on BLM land, about 12 miles from Canyonlands National Park. It was a great location to visit Arches National Park also.

Hwy. 313 near Canyonlands

Hwy. 313 near Canyonlands, I just love these gnarly old trees
so you will probably see more of them if you continue to read
my blog!

Shafer Canyon in 'Islands in the Sky' part of the park

Mesa Arch

A little closer to Mesa Arch

Another angle of Mesa Arch

Grand View Point Overlook

September 16, 2015

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Arches was designated first as a National Monument in 1929 by President Hoover. It became a national park in 1971. There are over 2,000 arches in the park. I wonder if anyone has seen them all.

As we traveled through the park, the rock formations took on a life of their own. We laughed as we saw so many images as our imaginations took over.