MMG and DDG Get High! Oh, My!

Our trip today was short, about 50 miles north on US 550 to Durango, CO.

Our main purpose in Coming to Durango was to take a ride around the San Juan Skyway to view again the spectacular scenery. Rather than invent the wheel again, I'm going to ask you follow this link to get a description of the Skyway, then I'll post pictures of what we actually saw along the way.

Because there is a snow storm predicted at the higher elevations later today and tonight, we parked the moho in the campground and hit the road immediately.

That Black one in the left center is us! Remember to click on the pictures to see an enlargement.

Durango is situated at an elevation of about 6500 feet and we will be going over Molas Pass at 10,910 feet, so we have quite a climb ahead of us. During the drive we will be passing a number of mountaintops with elevations well over 13,000 feet and a few over 14,000 feet. What is different about this drive is that instead of being down in the valley looking up, we'll be driving way up where we can get a good look at the mountaintops.

Rather than loading you down with the details of what's in each picture, let's just relax and take a look at the scenery:

Austrian Alps? Switzerland? Nope, view on the road to the Telluride airport.

Looking down instead of up. Silverton, CO, in the valley.

Beauty everywhere, even in the rearview mirror!

It's not all mountain peaks. This is a still "live" hot soda spring still running and growing.

It works like this:



On the way down from the mountains, we had a pleasant surprise. These Elk where waiting to pose for MMG!


And then they helped MMG add to her world famous huge collection of animal butts!


As we finally got back to the flatlands, the sky turned reddish orange and within minutes we were in the midst of a dust/sand/dirt/grit storm!

No, not fog! That's the sand/dirt/dust/grit storm.

Apparently, the reason for the storm was that a weather pattern change caused a strong wind to blow in from the southwest, right across miles and miles of desert where it picked up all this "stuff' and is carrying it east!

As of 9 PM local time, the wind has died down and the weather guru on TV says the "stuff" should be cleared by tomorrow.

If at any time you want the original big file of any of the pictures, just drop a line and I'll send it right to you.

Long day. Time to rest.

MMG and DDG

MMG and DDG Get Organized

We woke this morning with "no planned itinerary" and by 10:30 AM we had a real schedule for the next couple of weeks. Don't know what came over us.

In any event, here it is:

Tomorrow, 4/25, we're headed up to Durango, CO where we'll stay until Monday.

On Monday, 4/27, it's over to Lake Powell, AZ for a couple of days.

On Wednesday, 4/29 on to the Grand Canyon until 5/4.

On Monday, 5/4, up to Bryce Canyon NP through 5/9.

On Saturday, 5/9 off to Capitol Reef NP through 5/13.

Then, right now, we're back to "no planned itinerary", though we do want to be in Yellowstone around 5/24 through about 6/8 or so.

After the planning spasm, we went over to visit the Salmon Ruins, named after the farmer who discovered the ruins and protected them until they were sold to San Juan County in 1969.

The ruins are the nearly perfect example of a Chacoan "outlier" community, built and occupied by Chacoans and connected to the "head shed" in Chaco Canyon by a road and visual signal system.

You can see better pictures of the ruins than I could take here.

As you can see, the ruins have a more "live", or at least less sterile and sanitized, feel than the NP or NM sites we have visited.

The story of the why and what of the ruins, as well as the history of the Chacoans and the area are much more straight forward than those presented by the more wishy washy theories of the NP and NM people.

I tried to find a written source where you could read all about it without my having to type it all here and where you wouldn't lose anything in my paraphrasing. Couldn't find it, so here are pictures of the panels in the Ruins Museum that tell the story, but first the pictures I took of the site.

These pictures were taken from left to right from behind the Great Kiva which was in the plaza which was the focal point for community activities. Most of the 250 rooms are still buried and awaiting excavation at a later date.

Remember to click on the pictures for larger images.

And now for the rest of the story:


Just what was a "road" back then?


Where there many? Yes. Here's a map of the known Chacoan roads. It is about 120 miles from north to south and 70 miles from east to west. The red dots on the map are other "outliers" similar to Salmon Ruins.


Why the roads? To tie the outliers to the Chaco Canyon center from yesterday; to provide an easier way for the tens of thousand of "pilgrims" from the outliers to get back and forth to ceremonies; to provide an easier way to move goods and construction materials to where they were needed. For example:


Why did they need the trees in a "brick" building? Here's a picture of the ceiling construction that was necessary to hold the weight of the upper stories:



For your further amazement, consider that the experts have concluded that the construction was completed in a 2 year period! No power tools, no beasts of burden! Keep in mind that the construction probably required more than 2500 trees, 25 - 30,000,000 stone pieces which had to be cut and transported, and who knows how many tons of mortar. Whew!

Then, after only about 25 years, the Chacoans began to leave the pueblo and between 1116 and 1130 AD the abandonment was completed. Between 1130 and 1185 AD it beggars the imagination that the pueblo stood empty, but the next signs of occupation appeared around 1185 AD.


And then, by 1300, the area was almost completely abandoned by all the inhabitants:


Thanks for you patience. I think I can promise that there won't be any more Chacoan history lessons, though we'll be in their "territory" for the next few days. The next great opportunity would be Mesa Verde NP, home of the famous cliff dwellings.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, based on your viewpoint, the one area of that park that we have not had a chance to visit won't be open for another month, so we'll be skipping Mesa Verde this time.

If you have any questions or comments, please drop us line at our regular email addresses or post a comment here.

Be Well!

MMG and DDG

Chacoan Culture 850 - 1250 AD

This post is very difficult to write because there is so much history to cover -- and it is history you never heard anything about in school. MMG and I spent all day today and yesterday afternoon visiting the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and the Aztec Ruins National Monument.

Did you know that there was a thriving culture of 250 - 400,000 people living in a 5,000 square mile area in what is now the American Southwest during the period 850 - 1250 AD?

Rather than try to recap it in my words, we'll use pictures of the displays put up by the historians and archeologists of the National Park Service, along with links to more thorough explanations.

What it's all about. The Chacoan Culture. Remember to click on the picture for an enlargement.


Pueblo Bonito was the largest of the structures that were built in Chaco Canyon, the Center of the Chaco Culture. Building Started circa 825 AD.


Chetro Ketl was the second largest structure built, just a few hundred yards to the east of Pueblo Bonito. Building started circa 1050 AD.

Here are some pictures of the ruins:

Overview of part of Pueblo Bonito.

Ranger explaining the different types of masonry employed over the years in Chetro Ketl.

Another view of Pueblo Bonito.

Pueblo Bonito.

Pueblo Bonito.

Pueblo Bonito with modern gutter in lower left. Part of attempts to conserve the structure.

Showing the construction of the ceiling of an inner Pueblo Bonito room. The beams and logs have been carbon dated to 800 - 850 AD.

It has been estimated that the construction of Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl required in excess of 5000 mature trees and 50,000,000 stone pieces EACH! The types of woods used in the construction grow, at the closest, over 80 miles away. No trucks, no elephants, no mules, all had to be carried by the Chacoans to the Chaco Canyon.

It appears that relatively few people actually lived here and that the buildings were used several times a year for tribal or religeous celebrations or rites.

Why build these huge buildings? Think of these structures as the Chacoan equivalent of the great Cathedrals of Europe, some of which were constructed in the same time period.

The 250 - 400,000 other Chacoans lived in other settlements throughout the San Juan River Basin and beyond. One of these settlements was about 60 miles to the north in what is now Aztec, NM.

The Aztec Ruins National Monument displays the ruins of the old pueblo and the reconstruction of the main Kiva, which was the community center for tribal and religious celebrations.

The "Aztec" name comes from the mistaken belief of the discoverer (which gave him naming rights) of these ruins that they must be an extension of the Aztec culture of Central America.

The color stripe and the masonry would tend to indicate that this building was constructed late in the Chacoan era, probably not earlier than 1050 AD.

Great Kiva view North to South.

Great Kiva view South to North.

Almost 360 view of the Great Kiva from the entrance steps on the North side.

Oh! Did I mention that the Chaco CNHP is reached via a 16 mile dirt road? A very rough washboard infested dirt road?

More tomorrow!

MMG and DDG

Blast from the Past!

The Best part of April 22, 2009

Just driving down the road in Bloomfield and suddenly entered a time warp!




Shared our favorite -- Root Beer Float!

Note the 'phone on the wall for placing orders.

The waitress persons came complete with old fashioned metal coin change makers on their belts! Alas, no roller skates......

More later.

MMG and DDG

No Cultural Deprivation Here

This post serves two purposes. First, to let my friend Dave know that, even 2000 miles away, we're not Bluegrass deprived, and second, as a test of posting a video to the Blog.

I really wish the sound was better as the volume of the voice coming from the little person playing the bass was unbelievable.

This was taken with our camera on video at the Founders Day Celebration at Old Town in Albuquerque.






I just ran a "preview" and it looks like it worked!

Enjoy!

MMG and DDG

The Salt Missions Trail and the Turquoise Trail

We went day tripping again today, starting with the Salt Missions Trail. Basically, the Spaniards wanted to take over the lucrative and vital salt trade that flourished south of present day Albuquerque. To achieve that end they sent priests into the area to convert the indigenous population to save them for the Church and, coincidentally, take over the salt trade. There are currently the remains of 3 churches which were built in the early 1600's in this area. They have become known as the Salt Mission churches.

We only took the time to visit the Abo' ruins. What you are seeing in the picture are the actual ruins, not a reconstruction. Pretty good masonry work to last almost 400 years, so far, eh?

The back wall is about 50 feet high. This was a big church!

While I was waiting for MMG to begin the walking tour, this little purple flower asked to have its picture taken:



You can find a much better detailed description of the Salt Missions Trail here.

The Salt Missions Trail ends and connects with the Turquoise Trial which goes by several Turquoise mines which the indigenous native population has been working for hundreds of years. There are no tours or even a display with any detailed information. DDG has concluded that the main purpose of the Turquoise Trail is to lure tourists to the several extraction locations disguised as small towns along the way.

Fortunately, one of the side trips from the Trail leads to the Sandia Crest. The Sandia mountains are a range that stretch from north to south along the east side of Albuquerque. Sandi Crest is the tallest of the peaks, coming in at 10,678 feet, bout 5,400 feet higher than Albuquerque.

Needless to say, the view from the top is awesome. Also needless to say is that there's just no way to get a good picture of it. Still, one must try:

See? That's Albuquerque about 1 mile down there.

Another try.

Let's try the other side (east). The snow caps are about 30 miles away.

View to the north and why we didn't stay long. Car alarms and remote entry system don't work up here!

Why our picnic lunch plans had to be changed. 48 degrees! Brrrr!

We found a little area with no snow, no wind, and a table in the sunshine for a nice lunch setting, then headed home to do the laundry and get ready to go up the road tomorrow.

MMG and DDG

Along the Jemez Mountain National Scenic Byway

Rather than type all that again, let's just say that the above is where we spent the day.

Our route was I-25 north to US 550 north to NM 4 north and east to NM 502 to US 285 south to I-25 south back to Albuquerque. NM 4 runs over and through the Jemez Mountains and makes up the bulk of the Byway.

All of this is named after the Jemez (The People), former Indians who are now Native Americans and who, with their ancestors before, have lived in this particular area for something like 10,000 years.

As NM 4 leaves US 550 it follows the Jemez River for many miles as it climbs into the Jemez Mountains. And climb it does. At US 550, the altitude is about 5500 feet. At the Valle Caldera it was 8800 feet and, as we climb up and out of the caldera, we topped 9500 feet!

All altitudes provided by "Nuvi" our friendly GPS. She has been known to deliver us to a neighborhood apartment building instead of the Rib Shack dialed in, but she usually gets her altitudes right.

The Jemez River has been working its erosion magic for thousands of years, so as we proceeded we were hemmed in by these canyon walls:





At his point these canyon walls are from 1000 to 1500 feet high.

As the term "caldera" implies (you can get your definition of "caldera" here) there has been volcanic activity in this area. One of the things that comes with volcanic activity is hot springs which usually have water very high in mineral content. As the water comes to the surface and evaporates it leaves the mineral deposits behind resulting in the formation of often surprising shapes.

In the following picture the hot spring has, over the years deposited enough minerals to form a dam entirely across the Jemez River!

As you can see, the river has not succumbed but has kept a passage open right in the center of the picture.

After grinding our way to almost "the top" we found ourselves traversing an almost flat pastureland many miles across but surrounded by hills and small mountains. This sign explained it:



This is the result described:

That's about 12 miles of pasture there!

And 15 miles across it here.

You can get lots more info on the Valles Caldera here or here.

As we descended the other side of the mountain, we arrived at the Bandelier National Monument, named not after the NAs who were the residents of the canyon for hundreds or thousands of years, but for the man who first documented the history and worked to have it turned into a National Monument.

Confession time. Right here the camera battery gave up and the spare was back in the moho, so for pictures and more info on Bandelier, go here.

After our hike up the canyon to the restored NA dwellings, both on the canyon floor and up in/on the canyon walls, we were pretty well ready to just go home and that's what we did!

On the way our we were treated to our first snow capped mountains of this trip. We always welcome that sight as it makes us feel like we're really "out west" again........




More tomorrow!

MMG and DDG