The Mesa Verde and Hovenweep Ruins

From Durango it was only a short ride to the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Monument.
It would be my second visit to Mesa Verde; the first was a ski trip to Telluride with my daughter (Jamie) over the millennium New Year celebration of 2000.  Jamie stayed on the mountain and snowboarded for the day while Dad trekked off to the ruins.

The winter, of course, had provided entirely different view than what I anticipated seeing now; although, that winter time experience had only traces of snow and almost no other visitors.  In fact, most of the site was closed to visitors during the off-season and my time at the ruins was, therefore, limited to only a matter of hours at Spruce Tree House.

With summer now in full swing, the campground and RV Park were busy, but less crowded than expected (with the sour economy American's are still not vacationing as actively they once had).

One word of advice for bikers and anyone requiring premium gasoline, it is a sparse commodity in and around the area east of Mesa Verde and not available at all in the park itself.  Fortunately, premium gas is available in Cortez, ten miles west of the entry to Mesa Verde.  

The approach to Mesa Verde is spectacular in itself, with winding roads yielding amazing vistas.  Mesa Verde is not a single ruin, but a complex of ruins separated by miles a paved roadway.  In fact, there are said to be more than 600 sites, ranging from a simple pit habitation to the Cliff Palace - the largest cliff dwelling in North America.

For me, the many fantastic vistas that the sites provided were worth the trip in of itself.  Had there been no ruins at all, I would not have wanted to miss the ride.

But, of course, there are ruins, and they are truly incredible!

The larger sites are built within naturally occurring alcoves which provided the back walls and (in some cases) the ceilings from which the pueblos are built.

The first stop is the visitors center, and don't pass it up; many of the sites are ranger guided tours requiring scheduled tickets.  The tickets are not expensive and guided tours are an interesting and fun time.

All of the sites require a fair amount of walking (with the exception of the Far View Site) and none of sites are handicap accessible.  In fact, visiting Mesa Verde is a moderately strenuous undertaking, and often includes steps and ladders to climb, as well as, low and narrow passageways - but, it's all worth it!

There hiking trails (for those of you that are so inclined) and even though I am not an avid hiker, when I saw a sign pointing out the trail to the pictographs, it was too much to resist.

Unbeknownst to me, however, the trail was three miles long; up-down and over rocks and numerous other appending obstacles.  Had I read the brochure before hand, I never would have taken the trail and would have missed a great experience.  The pictographs were "neat," but the views that were provided by the trail were very special indeed.

I left Mesa Verde wondering if it deserved of yet another day, and knowing that the answer was, "Of course it did, - perhaps even Extra DAYS!"  It is a very special place!

Even so, it was time to leave; in fact, time now seemed to be my enemy, barely more than a week ago I was urging myself to slow down, but now it seemed as though I had succeeded all to well in that effort and now the pressure was on to - SPEED UP!

However, there are obstacles in my path, I need take some time off from my travels to catch-up on my blog and attend to pressing personal matters (bills etc.)  If I push on to Hovenweep, will another day of experiences, requiring more blogging, only worsen matters?  Perhaps, but so be it.

Hovenweep is a somewhat isolated location about 40 miles north of Cortez and noted for the fact that, the ruins are very much they were when they were first discovered in the mid-1800's.

The most distinctive features of Hovenweep are the round and square towers the true nature of which is a matter of some conjecture, but they are not believed to have been used as kivas or ceremonial centers.

While the Hovenweep site extends for many miles, the location I visited (north of Cortez) provides an easy to moderately difficult, self guided walk of about 2 miles over well marked trails.

Again, for me, a lot of the enjoyment of visiting the pueblo ruins (and Hovenweep was no exception) is the setting within the canyon walls where the ruins lie.  It seems incredible that, though by most accounts, there is little evidence of warfare (among the puebloans} that would have encouraged such isolation; they nonetheless, chose to build in some of the most difficult settings that one can conceive.