Road Trip to CO - Mesa Verde

It has been a few weeks since we finished our road trip and there have been plenty of distractions since I've been back that have kept me from sharing the story. Now that the Olympics are on  TV I am trying to multi-task. But it's hard to pull my eyes away from the TV at times.*  However I'm close to finishing--we are still in Colorado but once we headed for home we didn't stop for much. After we left Black Canyon of the Gunnison  National Park we looked at our trusty Benchmark map book for Colorado and saw that we could probably get to Mesa Verde National Park in time to spend the night there. So after driving through the marvelous San Juan Mountains it was a relatively short drive from Durango to Mesa Verde. We got there about 6 p.m. and found that there were plenty of open campsites.

We looked at the Park maps and saw a couple of 2-mile trails that we would have time for before dark. First we hiked up to Point Lookout at 8427' elevation. This view is to the northwest with the San Juan Mountains in the background and the town of Mancos in the center.

Squirreltail...

...and Indian rice grass along the trail.

After getting hiking this trail we drove to the the Knife Edge Trail which follows a section of the precarious road built in 1914 which was part of the original main access into the park.

Dan took this photo of me with the booklet that described the plants and other features along this trail.

This is a popular place for park visitors to watch the sunset. We walked back to the car at dusk and it was dark when we found a campsite. With the dark it got cold and we didn't have a working stove. We ate tuna sandwiches and went to bed. 

This is what camp looked like in the morning.

There were deer around the camp in the night and at dawn when I got up.

Seen on my early morning walk.

We had learned when we paid for our campsite that the way to see the features for which the park is best known (the cliff dwellings)  is to sign up for one of the tours. We showed up the next morning for the Balcony House tour.

We were directed to follow the trail to the end where we would find a ladder and to wait there.

This tour is listed as the "most adventurous cliff dwelling tour" and we were warned that we would "climb a 32' ladder, crawl through an 18" wide by 12' long tunnel, and climb up a 60' open cliff face with stone steps and two 10' ladders". Not quite an Indiana Jones adventure but it did seem challenging for some of the tour participants.

Can you imagine what this was like when people really lived here?

I can see the challenge of being a mother of a toddler.

The Ancestral Pueblo people lived in the Mesa Verde area for about 700 years from about AD 550 to the 1200's, first living in pit houses, then above-ground pole and adobe structures. The people built the cliff dwellings from the 1190's to 1270's and lived there for less than 100 years. It is unknown why, in the span of a generation or two, the people left the area.

Ranger Spenser was glad to answer questions and discuss his passion for the earlier residents of these dwellings.

Each village or homesite has a kiva built below ground or in the case of the cliff dwellings, into the rock floor.

This is the view across the canyon from Balcony House.

This is the same view with a longer lens. It was remarkable that when you really started to look (or got out the binoculars) that you could see dwellings in many of the cliff walls.

Here is another that we saw later in the day...

...and here's the close up. This is known as Square Tower House, a 4-story building.

Remember the part about the 18" x 12' passage. Here it is...

...followed by the ladders...

...and steps up the cliff wall.

We drove through more of Mesa Verde, looking at some of the other sites, but knew that we needed to get on the road if we were to get home some time the next day.

Next post: Four Corners and Monument Valley.

*I still didn't get this finished and now its the next day.

Road Trip to CO - Gunnison to Durango

We left home on Wednesday and planned to get home on the following Wednesday. This was Monday. We had driven the road north of the Gunnison River the day before and camped near the Blue Mesa Dam.

This campsite was essentially a parking lot for RV's, but we just needed a place to eat and sleep so it worked.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison became a National Monument in 1933 and was made a National Park in 1999, over twenty three years after I spent a summer in the area. It contains 14 miles of the canyon's total 48 mile length.

I guess they'll take anyone as a Park Ranger.

The canyon is so deep and narrow due to the power of the Gunnison River as it drops an average of 96 feet per mile.  The Gunnison loses more elevation in the 48 miles of the canyon than he Mississippi River loses in 1500 miles.

It is a sobering thought that the power of this river is forever harnessed due to up-river dams that lessen seasonal flooding. Therefore, build up of sandbars and more vegetation has changed the ecology of the canyon.

The Painted Wall was created over a billion years ago when molten rock flowed into fissures in the dark wall.

That molten rock cooled into crystals of mica, quartz, and feldspar. Amazing patterns were revealed as the river cut through the rock, forming the canyon.

Breakfast with a view.

I enjoyed the signs along some of the trails to help with plant ID.

I recognized this bush with it's remarkable fuzzy seed dispersal method, but couldn't quite find the name in the recesses of my brain. Mountain Mahogany.

I also recognized this as in the Mariposa Lily family. It's called Gunnison Sego Lily.

We spent half the day exploring the canyon from the rim. There are no trails to the river in the Park. We saw a couple of trails when we drove along the north rim east of the Park, but they are not for the feint of heart or casual hiker. The rim views are spectacular enough. But we had limited time and needed to get on the road.

In the summer and fall of 1976 I worked  for the BLM in Montrose, Colorado. I had fond memories of renting a bunk house on property between Montrose and Ridgeway and spending weekends exploring the old mines and alpine meadows in the beautiful San Juan Mountains. I had never been back, but wanted to use this opportunity to drive through that country.

As we were driving down Hwy. 550 I wondered if I would recognize the place. The highway followed the Uncompahgre River but was on the wrong side of the river. Surely I would have remembered living right next to a major river like that. My memory was that the bunkhouse was up against a bluff and just south of the big house. We got to a point where the river shifted course for a brief period to the west side of the highway and there it was. I'm glad to see that they place hasn't been torn down and, in fact, looks as though it has been fixed up. The bunkhouse is just behind the red truck and, yep, there is a bluff behind it.

The view heading south from the house. Not a bad place to spend a summer...or a life (if you can deal with snow).

We drove south into the San Juan Mountains.

I have memories of driving to Ouray and heading out from there towards Telluride to explore the mountains. I don't think that these towns had the tourist appeal then that they do now.

This is one of the most gorgeous places I can imagine. It's hard to get photos that do it justice.

From dangerousroads.org "In the state of Colorado...there’s a special highway built in the late 1880's: the Million Dollar Highway, part of the San Juan Skyway. It's one of the nation’s most spectacular drives...The road's winding design, providing stunning panoramic views, is very curvy and fun for a leisurely ride, so it pays to take it slow. Offering breathtaking mountain, valley and gorge views, the Million Dollar Highway is one of the most beloved roads in the country. This classic stretch of two-lane blacktop snakes its way through the San Juan Mountains, the wildest and most rugged peaks in the Rockies."

From another website: "Originally built in 1883 by Otto Mears as a toll way from Ouray to the now abandoned town of Ironton, this two lane highway offers spectacular views of the San Juan Mountain Range, and Uncompaghre Gorge. The road was extended to connect Silverton and Ironton over Red Mountain pass, and operated as a toll road until the early 1920’s when it was rebuilt and became part of the present day US Highway 550."

Can you imagine the road when it was first built?

Here a a panoramic view of the modern day bridge over Bear Creek Falls.

Originally the road connected Ouray with the Red Mountain Mining District to the south.

There are signs overlooking the site of the Yankee Girl Mine, one of the richest concentrations of silver ore found in the U.S. It started in 1882 and produced ore valued in today's market at over one hundred million dollars, but lasted only about 16 years.

Just more pretty scenery.

This is taken from Molas Pass (10, 910'), the second of three passes on this highway going towards to Durango.

Loving the mountains.

Fortunately I don't have to carry my camera gear the way William Henry Jackson did when he documented the West.

Onward to Mesa Verde where we would spend the night.

Road Trip to CO - Arches #2

We had only one day to spend in Arches National Park, but we took advantage of it all, hiking/walking/driving. I posted a lot of photos here, but there are more.

We spent the first half of the day hiking a 7-mile trail. After that we drove to various points of interest or overlooks where there were shorter trails to more arches.

We ended up hiking about 12 miles that day.

The scenery was all spectacular. 

This is looking back at the parking area from the trail to Delicate Arch.

Much of the trail is walking across the slickrock.

Then the trail becomes almost a shelf that winds around the side of a cliff.

When you get the first view around the corner of that cliff you're almost blown away (literally as well as figuratively). What a site! It's absolutely amazing. I mean we saw a lot of arches and cool rocks and cliffs earlier in the day, but there was something about this one that is stunning. Maybe it's because you see it suddenly as you turn the corner. Maybe because it stand alone with no other features near it.

Maybe it's because of it's size. In this photo there are people. Do you see how small they look?

.

In fact, there were a lot of people. It took some patience to get a photo of the arch with no people. That's Dan sitting on the rock while others venture towards the arch. At this location the wind was so strong that it felt as though you could be blown backwards off the cliff.

Wind effect in my hair. It's not standing up just from the sweat and 2 days of camping!

As is the case with most hikes, the trip back to the truck took a lot less time. At the bottom there are petroglyphs. These images of a horse and rider, bighorn sheep, and dogs were carved between 1650 to 1850.

We continued on the road through the park. This is an overlook across the canyon from Delicate Arch. You can see it right there in the center of the photo. The trail we took came from around the rocky cliffs at the left.

It was getting dusk when we got to the trails to see the last arches. These were relatively close to the parking lot so there were lots of people there. If you look closely you will see people on the rocks under the arches and on the trail. That gives you a sense of scale.

We followed another trail at this location...

...to get a different perspective...

...as the sun was going down.

Interesting manmade patterns.

We stopped at the visitor center to clean up and fill water jugs. I got in a bit of sheep showing practice before we left to find our camping spot for the night.

Road Trip to Colorado - Arches N.P.

The mosquitoes that had been relentless the night before (this post) were slightly less so in the morning.

However the surroundings were beautiful as the sun reached the west side of the canyon.

But we didn't linger around camp. We packed up and drove just north of Moab to the entrance of Arches National Park.

The cliffs on the left side of the photo are part of Arches and that's the Colorado River flowing our of the canyon in the center of the photo.

I had been here once or twice before but that was almost forty years ago. (Oh yeah, I was going to find my old slides and see if I have photos from back then.)

I don't remember the names of all the arches. Besides sometimes I don't want to know what names other people have used for formations. I like to enjoy them without always having to see or think of something that is not a rock. I'll make up my own name if something comes to me.

We had one day to see the park and, knowing that it was going to be a hot day, we decided to start with one of the longer trails. Out and back on the more traveled trail would have been about 5 miles. We ended up taking the "primitive" route to come back and that was 7 miles.

I thought about giving up taking photos because it seem so hard to capture the grandeur, the color, the textures.

But of course I continued to shoot photos and I am sharing some of my favorites.

Distances are so deceptive in this country. We had seen these rock walls in the distance and I had thought, "it's a good thing we're not going there". The "primitive route" took us around those and beyond.

Cairns are important in finding the trails over slickrock and through washes. Seeing those little rock towers kept us on track in places where the trail wasn't obvious.

More from Arches National Park in the next post.

Seen on the Farm

This one isn't actually on OUR farm. I love this sunflower crop that is Across the Road.

I took the rest of these photos here.

Monarch caterpillar on narrow-leaf milkweed.

Alfalfa butterfly. The caterpillars are considered pests in fields of alfalfa. They also consume other legumes (like clover and trefoil in my pasture).

I still don't know what this one is. Previously I tentatively identified one in a better photo as a forage looper moth. Maybe? Do you know how hard it is to chase a butterfly/moth that doesn't want to be photographed?

California Red Dragonfly. While we're looking at insects here are nasty ones that supposedly the dragonflies eat.

We were doing pretty well keeping the pasture mosquitoes at bay.  I guess it was the last irrigation followed by a heat wave that brought them on to this degree. This morning in the pasture I was covered head to foot--overalls and a hooded sweatshirt with the hood tied around my face. I could still hear them buzzing.

While on the subject of nasty buzzing things in the barn last year's paper wasp nests are active again. I guess I need to find the wasp spray.

Same subject. Different pest. This is another black widow on the hay. You have to be careful pulling bales of hay away from the wall or off the floor.

Also in the barn but no stings or bites (except maybe when the parents dive-bomb the dogs). This is another nest of Brewer's blackbirds. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago...

...and this one a little later. These birds have left the nest now.

Sheep going to pasture in the morning.

These are some of the new sheep. That's Bronagh who seems to take the lead. They are out with the rest of the flock now and are as anxious to come to the fence for grain when I rattle the bucket as the other sheep.

More Pasture Plants

This is a continuation of What's in the Pasture. I have a lot more plants to go. I changed the fence to move the sheep from the south half of the Horse Pasture (no horses for a long time) to the north half. They came running.

They were ready for fresh feed...

...because this is what they left behind. I have moved the net fence a few inches off the fresh pasture. You can see what it looked like on the other side of the fence.

I think this is orchardgrass, but I'm not 100% sure.

When you identify grasses it helps to look at more than just the seed head. This photo shows the ligule which this publication from the Wisconsin Cooperative Extension (which also has a good diagram of grass parts) describes for orchardgrass as "prominent; cuts or splits on whitish margin".  Yeah, I can see that. This one from UCD is also a good resource.

Lately I have left my 40 mm lens on the camera and get a kick of of looking closely at things that I see better on my computer than through my glasses.This one is Curly Dock.

Here is the not-so-interesting photo of it.

I have made good progress at getting rid of Spiny Cocklebur, but it will never all be gone. I continue to chop any of these that I see. Obviously I haven't dealt with these along the corral fence but need to take a shovel instead of a camera when I walk out here. 

You can see why it is undesirable and the reason it thrives even where everything else has been eaten. Besides the thorns the flowers develop into nasty burs that stick in fleece and hurt fingers.

Speaking of thorns and eating, I'll deal with the thorns when the eating is this good. And I won't complain that the bushes are completely covering the electric fence.  I had my first ripe blackberry this morning.

Getting Ready

Getting ready for a wedding. The kids worked for  for months on this...and that included having to change venues, due to no fault of their own, six weeks prior to the wedding. Then it was the day before. Chris built one 8-foot and two 10-foot tables for the use of the wedding party. He also made assorted game pieces and a very cool guest sign-in board.Chris getting advice from his sister.More advice. Stout tables.Some of the bridal party who helped the day before. They were all there--what a great group of friends Chris and Meryl share.Table inspection by the resident cat......who, having done his (her?) job, needed a nap.Wedding rehearsal. I didn't get all the guys in the photo because I was seated in my mother-of-the-groom chair.The girls minus the bride.

Kirby was there also. She was a bit worried when Uncle Matt put her purple Crocs on his feet, but she recovered quickly once she got them back. Do you know how many more cute photos there are of Kirby? But I'll restrain myself.Meryl's parents hosted a dinner the night before the wedding and here are my three beautiful daughters!

Tiny Things

The other day I saw this on the ground......and was inspired to change to my 40 mm micro lens. Then I walked around looking at things through that lens. Some are tiny and some not so tiny, depending on the view.Grapes just forming.The rope part of Ginny's Toy.Dried up "cone" from sheoak tree.That "cone" on the tree.Can you guess this one? Answer below the next photo.This is the new growth on the redwood tree. That photo above is the joint in a ram skull.Rose.This bottlebrush is covered with flowers this year.This is what is left from last year's flowers.Chain.I took the camera Across the Road too. This is a blackberry flower.Hoverfly on a blackberry leaf.Grass flowering.Buckeye flowers. This lens isn't just good for close-ups. I got some fun photos of Ginny jumping for her Toy in the canal. Those will be in Rusty's blog as soon as I can get him to come in the house and work on it..

March Came in Like a Lamb

March!Western redbud near the house. I wish it would bloom all spring.These are Mae's lambs.Sisters from last year, Jade and Jillian, waiting to go to the pasture. Jade wasn't bred but Jillian is pregnant.Sending the pregnant ewes out in back. These are yesterday's lambs:Loretta and a single ram, standing. The one on the ground is the lamb that Raquel rejected a couple of days ago. I successfully "slime grafted" her to Loretta. More about that in a future post.Later in the day Alexandria lambed with little tiny lambs, both under 5 pounds, but vigorous and healthy.Cascade lambed with a single ram last night. That lamb is to me an average size but weights only one pound more than Alexandria's combined.Here is the status so far. Color coding for girl/boy. BT means that the lambs have had BOSE (selenium and Vitamin E supplement) injections and their tails have been banded. Sires are Ringo, Rotor, Nash, and Faulkner. Only 26 ewes left to lamb!

Across the Road-February

I took these on my dog walk yesterday evening.Mustard blooming.Mistletoe berries.Almonds just about ready to bloom.Looking west.Taken earlier in the day. One of our two almond trees is in full bloom and full of bees.

Cute, Cute, Cute

It will still be a few weeks before I have any more lambs so the first three have more than their share of photos.This is Delight with her twins. This is Dazzle with her single lamb. One of the problems I have photographing Jacob sheep is the fact that they have black markings around their eyes. I find that it is hard to expose the photo properly and also be able to see the faces. I edited this lower photo to where I could see the lamb's eyes, although they aren't showing up here very well and the photo looks washed out compared to the top one. Here is another example.

The original is on the left. The black is too black, but I'm not very good at lightening it up just enough to see the eyes better. I lightened the shadows on the one on the right and it looks OK when it stands alone and is not next to the first version. I also tried dodging around that right eye, but it didn't help much. I think I need a lesson.Here is another pair of photos. Which is better? Top or bottom?At least I have CUTE going for me. 

Speaking of cute, can you tell the difference in these two photos? It's not in editing. Try the focus...Ginny's focus, that is.