Sunday, September 21, 2008

Mesa Verde, again III





Big day yesterday, including a trip to Mesa Verde again!

We started off going to Cortez by way of Khan, the camel, and really enjoying the farmers' market. Lots of vendors and their wares must be at the height of plentitude. We got lots of green and yellow goodies, which will be good for our waistlines!

Servas visitors from Denmark arrived Friday evening, providing an excuse for two traditional kinds of supper ... I made posole for Friday night and Sandy did pot roast last night. As is usually the case with Servas visitors, they were wonderful about pitching in and helping with the salad, etc. 

So, they got to experience the Cortez farmers' market before we went up on the hill for a fairly full day at Mesa Verde. We went immediately to Spruce Tree House, in order to get down and back before the sun hit it and the trail got hot. The top picture shows John and Jytte down in Spruce Tree House, looking down into the reroofed kiva. While it's steep coming back out of both of them, Spruce Tree House and Step House (on Wetherill Mesa) are the only two cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde that are wheelchair-accessible ... and it makes a real difference in terms of being able to understand and appreciate them.

On the way back up, they paused on the slickrock to get pictures of Spruce Tree House. Later, Sandy, Jytte and John were together at the Square Tower House overlook, gazing at the immensity of Navajo Canyon.

One of the joys of touring the cliff dwellings yesterday afternoon was the scattered cloud cover. As we stood at the Sun Point overlook, clouds would focus the sun's light first on one site and then another. In this picture, it's spotlighting Cliff Palace, while Sun Temple and Mummy House at the left are in mid-shadow. We stood there for a while and just watched this light show play before us. tv

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