Tuesday Day 10 -- Four Corners & Monument Valley

I left Mesa Verde this morning and headed south on Highway 160. I spent about an hour at the Four Corners Monument. There isn't much to see there but the entire Monument is surrounded with booths selling jewelry and t-shirts.

 

 I continued on 160 to 193 and headed north through Monument Valley. It was already after 3 so I didn’t spend a lot of time there.

I decided to try to find a hotel for the night. The first place with anything available that was reasonably priced was in Blanding, UT so that is where I am now.

Tomorrow I plan to take 95 north to Hanksville and then backtrack on highways 24 and 12. Not sure where I will be tomorrow night, I guess I will wait and see.

Monday, Day 9 -- Mesa Verde

Today is the day for exploring the parts of the park that you don’t have to take a tour to see. My first stop was the museum that sits just above Spruce Tree House. I took the trail that drops a steep 100 feet to the Spruce Tree House. This is the best preserved ruin in the park and the only one that you can actually go inside. I climbed down inside a kiva which was really cool.

The trail back to the museum crosses a 2.4 mile loop that takes you out to petroglyphs. I thought about taking this trail but I wasn’t carrying enough water on me and I didn’t want to climb up to the car and then back down again. I was feeling a bit lazy.

I then headed over and did the Mesa Top Loop. This has several overlooks where you can spot the ruins on the side of the hill. My last stop was the Soda Canyon overlook trail. This is a ¾ mile trail out to a lookout where you can see Balcony House.

Spruce Tree House

Me inside a Kiva at Spruce Tree House

Balcony House, look at the 32 foot ladder on bottom right.

People exiting Balcony House, this is the exposed trail and last ladder.

When I headed back to the campsite I drove through a little hail but thought nothing of it because I was still miles from camp. I got back to camp and decided to start a fire before cooking dinner. As soon as I started to stack the wood it started to hail on me. I quickly put everything away and drove to the camp store and ate a frozen burrito for dinner. What a wimp I am. Thankfully the hail storm here was short lived. 

Sunday, Day 8 -- Mesa Verde

I arrived at Mesa Verde around 10:30 am. I stopped at the visitor center and purchased tickets for a 3 pm tour of Cliff House and a 5 pm tour of Balcony House.

My next stop was the campground to register and set up camp. The National Park System has turned the campground over to an outside vender which makes camping here pretty expensive just like private campgrounds. At least the hot showers were free.

It is a 45 minute drive to Cliff House for the tour so I left a little early. To get to the ruins you have to climb down a bunch of steps and then climb a 10 foot ladder. Not a problem. It is really amazing seeing these 700 year old buildings still standing. Once the tour finishes you have to climb up three 10 foot ladders to get back to the parking lot. These ladders are placed in a crevice in the rocks so it isn't scary at all.

Next I drove to the Balcony House parking lot and checked out the exit trail as much as you could see. The rangers describe this trail in detail and will not let small children or people with health concerns take the trail. The whole trail is only a quarter mile long altogether but WOW! First you have to climb down a whole bunch of stairs, and then you walk along an easy wide trail until you get to the 32 foot high double wide ladder. I was really okay with the ladder until the top when it was wiggling from so many people on it. What got me through was I refused to look down and just concentrated on breathing. This ruin has two main rooms, to get to the second room you climb over a big rock and through a crevice. After the second room you have to climb through a tunnel that has an opening of 18 inches wide by about 36 inches high. Next were two 10 foot ladders, a narrow ledge trail, and finally the last 10 foot ladder. This last ladder is completely open on the cliff face, really scary but I made it without showing any panic at all.

32 foot ladder.

One of the crevices we had to go through.

Poor lady in front of me kept getting butt pictures taken.

By the time the last tour was over it was after 6 so I headed back to camp for dinner and a well deserved rest.

Day 7 -- Drive to Cortez

After packing up the car at the campgrounds I took a quick shower and did a load of laundry. I took a short detour along the Colorado River to check out the tiny campgrounds that I had read about. Very pretty, still close to town, but a little isolated feeling. I'm not sure I would want to camp alone there.

Pull out looking back at Moab.

After leaving the river I went back through Moab and headed south on 191. I debated with myself on taking a longer scenic route through the mountains but with thunderstorms predicted in the area I decided to stick to the better roads in case of bad weather.

I reached the Cortez area and stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Center. This museum has tons of information about the entire area. It also has two Pueblo ruins right there on the grounds. The bigger one is an easy 1/2 mile walk up a paved trail. Of course, as soon as I got to the top it started raining. Big drops but not a downpour so I was able to get back down without getting soaked. The thunder started when I was already down the hill.

When I pulled out of my parking spot I kept hearing a thunk, thunk, thunk, from my back wheel area. I stopped and looked to see a large chunk of black stuff hanging from my tire. It gave me an "OH CRAP" moment until I realized nothing was wrong with my tire but a big chunk of road tar that they use to patch up the cracks in the road was stuck to my tire.  I pulled it off and was on my way.

After checking in I went to dinner at a place called Pepperhead. Really yummy Mexican food, good and strong margaritas, and a unique dessert of chocolate chipote ice cream. The ice cream was served on a bed of vanilla ice cream with cherry syrup over it. There was a little kick to the ice cream that you felt afterwards.

I am heading to Mesa Verde for more camping and won't be able to check in for a few days.

Day 6 -- Canyonlands

On Friday, the 17th I headed to the Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands NP. The short drive there was very pretty with lots of red rock formations to look at. At the top of the road when you enter the park all you  see is arid grasslands. Everything is green right now but you can tell that it is a very dry area.

Whenever I enter a park that I haven't been to before I like to make my first stop the Visitor's Center. They let me know that at the end of the road at Grandview parking lot there was going to be a ranger talk in 45 minutes. I decided to go straight to Grandview so I could catch the talk and I could work my way through all the scenic pull outs on the way back.

The ranger talk was about geology of course and she described the way the area was formed as a symphony and used classical music to emphasize her descriptions. I kept thinking how much my Mother-in-Law would enjoy the program.

After the talk I ate a light lunch and took the mile long trail along the rim to see Grandview point. Walking along places on this trail reminded me so much of the Grand Canyon. I was very careful to stay away from the edge of some of those rocks. The view of course is spectacular. They call this area Island in the sky because it is in the center of where two rivers merge in deep canyons. The Green River is on the west side and the Colorado River is on the east side. You can see the Green River in a few places but the canyon is cut too deep to see the Colorado.

Looking west toward the Green River

Looking east toward the Colorado River.

When I reached Grandview I even climbed up on a rock to get a better view. For me this is a very brave thing to do. I didn't stay up there very long because the wind was gusty and pushing you toward the edge.

Colorado River

These are the rocks I climbed up (that isn't me up there)

When I finished hiking I saw the Google Earth car pull into the parking lot. I chatted with him for a few minutes and then headed back up the road. I stopped a various overlooks and took pictures. The best spot was Navajo Arch. There is a very short hike to get there but it is sooo worth it. There was a tour bus at that spot so pictures were a challenge until they left. I asked a guy from Germany to take my picture in front of the arch, but when he handed back the camera I wasn't in any pictures. He didn't realize that you have to actually look through the view finder to see what you are taking a picture of. His wife took a couple of pictures of me while she laughed at her husband.

View through Navajo Arch

Me

This is the crazy German lady on top of the arch that took my picture.

This is the crazy German lady on top of the arch that took my picture. I was shaking just watching her up there, if you fall from there it is several thousand feet straight down.

After the short arch hike stopped at Shafer trail overlook. This is a dirt road that you can take (4wd highly suggested) back to Moab or there is a 100 mile loop around the park. The ranger told me this road sometimes takes 3 days because you can only go about 7 mph. Just looking at this road from above I want no part of it, at least the part the goes down the side of the cliff.

Shafer Trail from overlook.

Shafer Trail from overlook.

Shafer Trail from overlook.

Last stop in Canyonlands.

Thursday, Day 5 -- Arches NP

Another morning that I woke up early and very well rested. It was warm overnight so I left the sleeping bag open and just slept under a light throw.

I made Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, yummy. I left camp around 9 am and headed to Canyonlands but changed my mind at the last minute and went to Arches instead. My reasoning is that Arches will be more crowded on a Friday instead of a Thursday.

My first stop was the visitor center. I spoke to a ranger at the desk to ask suggestions on easy hikes and how to see the most in a single day. He was very unhelpful and just short of rude telling me to just read the newspaper I was handed at the entrance. Wow, in all the time I have spent visiting parks I have never been spoken to like that. Sometimes I want a real persons opinion face to face instead of just what I can read. I didn't let it ruin my day.

I stopped at all the pull outs and took a short hike at the windows area. I took lots of pictures. I chatted with a few people I met at the stops and took some family pictures for them.

Sand Arch

I saw a rattle snake at the windows parking area hiding by the trash cans. I even took his portrait, but with a longer lens, no way was I going to get close even if he was little and cute.

Rattle snake at Arches

Me at Balancing Rock

Me again

I think they look like goggles, not windows.

I keep seeing this shape all over the park.

This area is not friendly to those that would hike off the trail.

Balancing Rock