Spring Travels West Part 4

As I started to work on a new post, I realized that I never posted this one after writing it, so here goes with it.  Warning, it is long.

After going through the cliff dwellings, we went on north to stay at Moab, Utah so that we could go to Arches National Park.

What an area.  B made the comment that even if there weren't any arches here, it would be worth seeing because of all the formations.

Before we got to Moab, we saw this along the road.  It is called Church Rock.

As we got closer, we also saw this, Wilson Arch.

 

We got parked and headed for the park.  I should have taken some pictures of the way up into the park, but didn't.  It was up a cliff.  These are some of the ones we first saw after reaching the top.

This one makes one wonder if it moved in an earth quake, and if so, I don't want to be near if there is another shake.

Just looking through and across to more of the park.

Looking out at more rocks with arches and the view beyond, Cove of Caves.  It was in the mid seventies where we were.

Double Arches

Two old people at Balance Rock.

I loved some of the old trees in this area.  There were lots of twists and wrinkles to it.  You could tell that it's life had not been easy; sort of like our wrinkles.

The above does point to an arch.

We drove on to two areas where you could see Delicate Arch in the distance.  I was able to zoom in on it.  It is all that is left of a rock wall.

In this area, we observed a layer of rough rocks.  Looking closer at them, one noticed that they were not sandstone like everything else.  It reminded us of agates or chert.  There were different colors in the rock.  Wish I knew my rocks better.  It was a park so I didn't take any samples. 

Looking out across the area, we could see soil that was green colored.  Makes one wonder if there is copper in the soil.

You can see some spring flowers in the above picture.  There were others in this area too.  I thought that maybe this one is related to the Primrose.

I'm not sure what the other purple one is but the red is definitely a cactus.

 We drove on into the park, enjoying the view.

 

Then we came to a sign that explained this area and the valley that we were looking over.

This explains that the area had been a salt bed.  The water entered, eroding and washing away some of the salt, the surface dropped and sank, forming the valley in the following picture.  These cracks in the sandstone, formed by the rain, freezing, and wind is what formed the "walls" that are now being eroded into arches.

This really shows the slabs or walls. 

This next area doesn't look much different than several other areas, but there is a sign that says there is an arch back in there, so we went to find out.

This is what we found after filling our shoes with sand getting there.

 

This is the view as we came out.

Another arch.  This one looks like it could break in the middle.

It was about this time that B got a bright idea.  If we hurried, we could drive back to the RV park in town, get something to eat, a flash light, and get back out to Wolfe Ranch; the area where a fellow tried to make a living long ago.  There is a spring there and an old log building.  "We could hike out to Delicate Arch, a mile and a half up hill, and be at the arch at sunset."  It was a good thing the hardware was out of my leg, or there is no way that I could have done it.

By the time we got to the area to start hiking in, the sun was going down behind the west hills.  But we hurried in and were there before it got dark.

They say that seeing sunrise here is also great, but we didn't bring anything to spend the night.  We didn't stay long, as it was hard to find the cairns marking the path across a large rock face.  However, we made it down to the well marked trail and back before having to use our flash light; I do have good night vision.  

So the next morning, before leaving the area, we went back and did some more hiking in to a few more areas which are seen below.

Pine Tree Arch

Sand Dune Arch

Then we arrived at the area that is shown in pictures of this Park, Skyline Arch.  The first shows it on the left and another on the right.  People hiked up under the one on the left.  You can no longer hike under the Skyline arch.  Back in the late 90's some people were under it when small rocks started coming down.  They took off and were not injured when a large area collapsed.  The rubble can be seen on the left in another picture.

On the way out we got to see another part of the park.  

As we listen to the Christmas Story, we hear of the men from the east.  It doesn't say that they went back east, but it is assumed that they did.  I'm not so sure.

It also looks like that could be one of the camels on the far side towards the rear.

Spring Travels West Part 3

Okay, here goes the second part of Mesa Verde.

It was interesting to see the change of their structures as time went on and they learned more.

AD 700 - 950

Pit House (This one has two parts, they think the back part was for storage or was added living space.)

 Pueblo  (This was in the same area as the above picture.  The walls were made from a single layer of stone standing on edge.  Most of these early ones are in buildings to protect them from the elements.)

This is a Kiva at the same site.  Notice that it doesn't have the rocks forming the walls that have been smoothed like bricks.  It does have the small sipapu, fire pit, air shaft, as well as some holes in the floor that were just used for storage.

AD 900 - 1000

This area had been lived in at two different time periods. See the overlapping stone work.  This was not a Kiva, but rather a tower.  From this time on, there were towers.  They don't know if they were for communication or for lookouts.

 This shows a tower, on the right, built over the top of an older Kiva.  There is also another older Kiva on the right side of the tower, that is also partially under the tower.

This is a Kiva from this time period and shows the structure well and the floor.

I added this so that you could just read about the alignment of the Kivas.

AD 1200s

This is what they think this site looked looked like, from the excavation that they have done.

Where some of the rooms were located.

 

This is the Kiva that is connected to the tower.  The upper square hole on the right connects the two.  You can just see a small part of the tower on the right upper corner of the picture.

AD 1200 - 1300
We had gone around on the loop road and were now looking back towards the Palace dwelling.  By this time my camera battery was getting low so I wasn't able to get a very good picture, but these are pictures of some of the other dwellings.  There were a couple just to the left of the Cliff Palace.  We had no idea that they were there when we went down to go through the one.

This is a two ledge dwelling.  Just to the right and above the square in the center lower dwelling are foot/handholds cut into the rocks.  They must have used a ladder to get to them.  The following picture is zoomed in on this area.

They must have been very agile people.  I wonder how many little kids went over the edge.

This is the above one, on the right, and another next to it.  The next picture is zoomed in showing the painted wall.  They think that this was more of a ceremony area.  (They had a fire in this area some years back and that is why all the trees on the mesa top are dead.)

This is a zoom in on the floor below the hand/footholds.  To me, it looked like it had also been painted.

AD 1250
These are pictures of the Sun Temple, which was never finished or lived in.  There were no doors, windows, or fire pits.  This was also started about the time that they left the area.  It was on the top of the mesa.

Not far from the above area, was another structure that they call Far View Community.  It was a Kiva and living quarters in a bend around the Kiva.

Not far from the above is the reservoir that I mentioned in the previous blog.

One does wonder why they chose to live up on this very high mesa area, especially that down from here was flatter ground and there were rivers that could have been used for irrigation.  They also would have had a longer growing season and it would have been much warmer during the winter.  Yes, they probably did get more rain up there.  However, one does wonder.

Spring Travels West Part 2

One of the places that we have always wanted to see is Mesa Verde.  We were not disappointed.

To start out, one drives up the front of a mesa.  It is something that they were able to build a road up it.  We were at 6950 feet at the visitors center.  By the time we got to the Park Point Overlook, we were at 8572 feet.

We had picked up our tickets at the Visitors center and headed out on the Chapin Mesa to go to Cliff Palace.  That is the largest and the one that you always see in pictures.    It is a forty five minute drive to get there.  It looks large in pictures, but when there are people standing amongst the ruins, it doesn't look as large.  We had to wait at an overlook for the ranger for the one hour tour.  The first two pictures were taken from this area.  You can see people, in the tour before ours, if you look closely in the first picture.

We went down stairs to the rock layer upon which it is built.  This was metal stairs and steps that had been cut into the rock after it was open to visits.  It was steep going down and it makes one wonder how Indians got into it.

After we were down, the ranger had us sit in an area just at the left edge of the dwelling area.  There he talked about it and also answered questions.  When it was first found, there was lots of ruble but most of what we see today was standing.  They do continue repair to the existing dwellings to keep them standing.  He said that twenty years ago he came as a visitor.  At that time, they didn't know what happened to the people that lived here; they just disappeared.  Now we know that they didn't disappear, they just moved south and are the ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, and Acoma.  The pueblos along the Rio Grand trace their ancestry to these Ancestral Pueblo people.

They had lived first in pit houses from about AD 550.  Most of these were on mesa tops but some were in cliff alcoves.  About AD 750 some people began to build houses above the ground with upright walls fashioned of poles and mud.  These were built one against another in long curving rows, often with a pit house or two in front. By AD 1000  their architectural skill had advanced from pole-and-adobe construction to stone masonry.  Walls of thick, double-coursed stone often rose two or three stories high and were joined as units of 50 rooms or more.  Between 1150 and 1300 thousands of people lived on Mesa Verde.

It is not known why they moved from the top but about 1225 there was another major population shift which saw people moving back into the cliff alcoves.  Most of the cliff dwellings were built from late 1190 to late 1270.  Some are one-room houses to community centers of about 150 rooms.  Cliff Palace had 130 rooms and eight kivas.

When they lived in Pit houses they gathered a wide variety of edible and useful plants, hunted larger game as well as they farmed corn, beans, and squash.  By the time they were living in above ground structures, most of their diet was grown or was small animals.  Their only tamed animals were dogs and turkeys.  At some time they built a reservoir.

 By about 1300 Mesa Verde was deserted.  It is known that the last quarter of the 1200s saw drought and crop failures, but they had survived earlier droughts.  Maybe after hundreds of years of intensive use the land and its soils, forest, and animals were depleted.  Their descendants say that it was just time to move on as they are on a journey.

One of the things that was brought out is the difference in our thinking to that of the descendants.  While we worry about dates and why, they look at it as a journey that the people are taking.

This picture is of a kiva at Cliff Palace.  You can see the stone, air deflector, erected in front of the ventilator or hole bringing in air for the fire.  (I had mentioned this in my previous blog.)  This was to circulate the air and also to prevent too much draft to the fire.  The stone pillar, or pilaster, had wood poles on top that helped support the roof which was at ground level.  The lower benches, or banquettes, were used to sit on or store things.  In direct line with the ventilator and fire pit, but on the other side of the fire pit, was a smaller hole called a sipapu.  This represented the portal from which they as a people emerged and started their journey.  (One of the museums said they tell of being in a dark place with much turmoil.  It wasn't until they heard foot steps overhead that they believed it was time to go up into a new world through the sipapu.  This and the dates makes one think of the Book of Mormon.)

This is storage area that was built above the dwellings.  The ranger said that they would have had to crawl in them and that maybe they were hurried, that some were only stacked.

 

 The above is for perspective.  You can also see the 'storage' area on the higher ledge.

Below is the square tower that can be seen on the left of the first picture.  The floors inside only have the original poles.  Most of these rooms were at one time plastered and painted on the inside.  This tower still has some.  The two pictures after this one are of its' inside painting.'   (That is B looking in.)

We went out on the opposite side of the dwelling from where we had gone in.  This is of some of the steps and the first ladder.  (There were only about ten rungs on each of the ladders.  B was behind me and I did just fine.)

Then we started driving around the loop, stopping to look at sites.  This shows what the mesa looks like.  We were looking across at another part of one.  It reminded me of Black Oak Canyon that I went to with Marty in Arizona.  The more you looked the more dwellings you saw.

This next one is called Square tower.  It was one of the first excavated.  Unfortunately, the man who did it took more than a thousand artifacts back to his home in one of the Scandinavian counties where they remain.  Had they been left in place and with today's technology, we would know much more about how they lived and what the rooms were used for.

This is about long enough, so I will wait until the next post to bring you forward to the time of the cliff dwellings with pictures.

Spring Travels West Part 1

We decided to take a southerly route so that we could stop and see some places still on our bucket list, namely Mesa Verde and the Arches in southern Utah.

We bucked a wind all the way and got sandblasted by a front that was on it's way east; that then wrecked havoc with tornadoes.  Due to the cold and wind, we spent another day in Farmington, Utah and went to Aztec, where we viewed some ruins. This is what we saw as we approached it.

They have reconstructed what was left of a very large Kiva.  They know that the roof burnt and collapsed.  You can see a portion of it in the above picture and below.

Most Kiva's roofs were at ground level and were used as a working area.  They were also entered through a hole in the center of the roof, unlike this one is shown.  I'm not sure if that was the case with this one or not.  One thing that is different about this is the size and that there are small rooms around it opening into the center.  You can see the 'doorways' up on the wall.

 I am enclosing this article as it talks about how the roofs were constructed and also that they know that these are 900 years old, comparing the tree rings to other trees rings to establish dates going back.  That would place this settlement in the 1100's.  We learned that this was the 'second' style of housing; first pit houses, second above ground sandstone brick, third cliff dwellings.

The above are original roofs that have survived.  The rooms are small and also the door ways between are small.  The ranger was doing some work but he helps you see how small the rooms are.  That is B in the doorway.

 

You can see the thickness of the walls.  The outside was sandstone that they had rough cut and fitted together.  The inside was filled with rock pieces and dirt.  Then both surfaces had been sanded smooth with harder stones.  The darker line in the picture is made of a green colored stone.  There are some other areas with these green stripes also.  They don't know why they were placed there.  Some of the rooms were used for living in and some for storage.

This is looking down on the area from a higher spot.  You can see some round shaped areas.  These are smaller 'family' kivas.

We learned that the Kiva has an outside air vent that is located on the exterior of the wall.  This is usually bricked in.  It comes out at floor level on the inside.  There is a stone to divert the air between the opening and the fire pit, which is located in the center.  The way into the Kiva is directly over the fire pit.  So one went down a ladder as the smoke went up and out.  This next picture show some of this.

This was a good introduction to the things we would see and learn more about.  That will come in the next posts.