Southwest US trip - Day 3
This post is part 3 of the "southwest_us_trip-2009" series:
- Southwest US trip - Day 1
- Southwest US trip - Day 2
- Southwest US trip - Day 3
- Southwest US trip - Day 4
- Southwest US trip - Day 5
- Southwest US trip - Day 6
We woke at sunrise, got out of the KOA, and drove north back into the park. Since we couldn't do the Fiery Furnace tour, we planned to get a few remaining sites in, and then spend the remainder of the morning driving out to Mesa Verde National Park. Other than the random early morning photographers here & there, the park was pretty close to empty by the time we made the drive up to the Devil's Garden trailhead just before 7AM. The images above are all from the 3 mile (roundtrip) hike that we took to Landscape Arch that morning. Since it was just after sunrise, the light was definitely working in my favor. The 4th image from left is Landscape Arch (longest natural arch in the world). We only saw 3 other people during the entire hike (which took about an hour), and it was absolutely gorgeous.
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Afterwards, we drove down to the Delicate Arch viewpoint(above), and then headed out of the park for the drive to Mesa Verde National Park.
Mesa Verde is notable for numerous 700+ old pueblo cliff dwelling ruins. As its name suggests, Mesa Verde sits at the top of several adjoining mesas, which makes driving in and around time consuming. We arrived in mid-morning but by the time we made it up to the visitor (15 miles down the park's only road) it was late morning. We purchased tickets for the two available tours of Cliff Palace and Balcony house, and then made the drive further down the road. Along the way we noticed that huge swaths of the park were still recovering from a wildfire that occurred about 9 years ago (the largest that the park had ever experienced). There was little more than some grass & burnt out trees for miles. Since both sites were sitting on cliffs below the top of the mesa, we needed to descend stairs followed by an ascent of one or more ladders. We took the Cliff Palace tour first. The first three pictures above (from left to right) are from that tour. I enjoyed the tour alot, as it covered the history & culture of the people who built the dwellings about a thousand years ago, and explained why they were built as they did. Following that 1 hour tour, we drove a bit further down the road for the Balcony House tour. This tour was noted as the most strenuous in the park, as it required climbing a 32 ft. ladder, crawling through a 12ft.-long tunnel, and climbing up a 60ft open rock face with two 10ft ladders to exit the site. The 4th picture from the left (above) was the view from the parking lot immediately above Balcony House, looking eastward. The 32ft ladder at the start of the tour was definitely the beast to be conquered. David was eager before starting the ascent but as soon as he got about 3ft up, he commented frequently that he was scared, but he made it to the top, and then was really proud of himself. I was also nervous, as I dislike heights, but I just made sure not to look down and reached the top without any problems. The 5ft picture from the left above, shows a large chunk of Balcony House. The tour was decent, but it was a bit limited on actual contenting, instead spending most of the hour navigating the site & the ladders & steps.
Following the tours, we drove back north to explore Spruce House, which was accessible without a guided tour. We then drove almost all the way back to the top of the park to check into Morefield Campground. This had to be the most poorly run campground we've ever had the misfortune of using. For starters, it was operated by Aramark which should have been the early warning that it wasn't going to be well managed. We arrived at the checkin site to find a long line. As I waited nearly 30 minutes just to get checked in I overheard one horror story after another. Several people simply wanted to get checked in, and it took the women behind the counter forever as their computers apparently malfunctioned in every way imaginable. Other people were in line for the 2nd time, as the campsite that they were assigned did not exist. Another person wanted to cancel their reservation for that night when they discovered that there were only four functional showers for the entire 100+ site campground. When it was finally my turn, they found my reservation quickly, but then bumbled around for several minutes attempting to get me checked in. They then told me that they weren't going to assign me a specific campsite because their computers were malfunctioning. Instead, I was to just drive one of the loops and select a vacant site. Off we went, and found a vacant campsite after too much time, only to discover that the nearest bathroom & water station was closed. The next nearest was a half mile down the road.
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We setup camp, and quickly noticed that there were numerous deer wandering around everywhere. This wasn't a bad thing, however, the deer seemed to be so accustomed to having people near them that they'd basically ignore us no matter how close we got to them (or vice versa). At one point, there was one deer standing less than 12ft from our tent, as we sat inside. As nightfall approached, a large RV full of twenty-somethings from Tennessee pulled into the campsite next to ours. We knew this was bad, when one of them was hanging out the rear door of the RV, holding a beer in one hand, and screaming directions to the driver as they backed in. They were super friendly, and super drunk. They also inquired how late we normally stayed up at night, and Denise informed them that we normally went to sleep shortly after sunset and got up at sunrise. They informed us that they typically stayed up pretty late with the intention of getting up shortly before checkout (11AM). This, too, was bad. As the sun set, one of them pulled out a guitar, and proceeded to butcher most of the alternative hits of the 90s, at the top of his very drunk lungs. Next, they built a sizable bonfire on the ground, just outside their RV, and about 6ft from the tent that they built (nevermind that the RV was large enough to hold about 6 people, and there were only 4 of them). Around 9PM, we attempted to go to sleep, and I actually fell asleep for a short while when I was awakened by ridiculously loud radio music. Apparently they decided that the guitar was insufficient entertainment, and they turned on the radio inside the RV to maximum volume. After listening to this until 10PM (official quiet hours), I finally wandered over and politely asked them to turn off the music, which they surprisingly did. So while they were no longer playing any music, they continued to party hard around the bonfire for the next hour, before deciding to go to sleep.
All the pictures are posted here and here(landscapes).
This post is part 3 of the "southwest_us_trip-2009" series: