ice cream is delicious: Arches National Park, Canyonland National Park, Mesa Verde National Historic Park

Arches

Day 1 we drove from Grand Junction (Colorado) 2 hours. There was a 30 min line outside the park, but we got in before they stopped letting people in.

Delicate Arch - an easy hike but narrow high section at the end.

Saltflat viewpoint: so-so

Fiery furnace: permit/tours not open till May. Glow in late afternoon gives it's name. Actually very cool inside.

On the way see skyline arch (.1mi hike to it)

Devil's garden

Tunnel arch (.1mi detour)

Pine tree arch (.2mi detour).

Could take short cut to main trail from pine tree arch, but require scrambling and jumping down a long distance.

Landscape arch (1.8mi rt): 1991 giant slab fell so ppl no longer allowed to go under it.

Afterwards, there is a very steep climb like you are going up to the sky.

Then flat. Then a section where you walk on a high ridge with drop off on both sides. Scary but beautiful views of vertical slats called "fins".

Double O arch (4.2mi rt). Devil's garden on the right.

Tapestry arch.

The couple (name that I made up). And behind it looks like ice cream!

Sanddune arch (very short hike from road). Through sandy canyon.

Day 2: Turret Arch (short hike from parking lot). Like the turrets that knights used to shoot arrows from a castle tower.

North and South window (can see Turret Arch from North Window).

Other side of the parking lot is Double Arch, tallest of the arches.

Next to Double Arch is the Parade of elephants:

Garden of Eden on the way back to the main road:

Balancing rock:

End of Park Avenue trail (1mi one way): gossiping ladies, sheep, courthouse, organs.

Tower of Babel and Courthouse

Gossiping Ladies

The Sheep

La Sal Mountain viewpoint:

Park avenue: sheer walls reminded early visitors of buildings lining a big city street.

Entrada sandstone formed 150 million yrs ago as tidal flats, desert, beach deposits about a mile thick. Buried sand compressed into stone. Pressure also cracked it. Erosian from water/rain left vertical slabs called fins. Fins are the first step in arch formation.

3 layers: Moab tongue (youngest, light-colored sandstone mostly eroded away), slick rick member (hard, prone to arch formation), and lastly on bottom is dewey bridge member (muddy red/brown, weakest and erodes fastest).

Canyonlands

There are 3 distinct sections with their own entrances: Islands in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. We only got to go to Island in the Sky, which has the Green River on the west and Colorado River on the east.

Mesa Arch:

Orange cliffs overlook. Can see the Green river in the distance.

There is a White Rim Road for four wheel drive vehicles, takes about 2 days.

Grand viewpoint overlook:

Totem pole (stands at 305 ft tall from the bottom): tallest feature in monument basin.

Confluence of Green and Colorado river. See the Needles in the distance. Le Sal and Abajo mtns in the distance

Along the hike:

After 1 mile hike from Grand Viewpoint:

Candlesticks overlook during sunset. Afterwards, we drove to Cortez (CO).

Day 3: Mesa Verde

First historical national park.

Started at the Chapin Mesa museum (closed). Trailhead from there to spruce house dwelling and petroglyphs and spruce canyon trail.

Spruce tree house (no house access bc under repair). The best preserved cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. Pueblos lived here from 1200 to 1280AD. Moved to surrounding states. Maybe because of drought (from tree rings), depletion of resources, or religious/social changes and conflicts. Each pueblo may have had their own reasons.

Pueblos built structures to climb to top of mesa for farming. Collected water in pots and cisterns during storms for water. They built dams to water farms.

The houses expanded as the population expanded. Maybe 60-90 ppl lived there.

What looks like windows were doors. Rectangular or T shaped for people carrying a load.

Ladders led down to kivas which were gathering places for social/religious activities. Kept warm during the winter. Sipapu is a hole that represented portal to next life.

Petroglyph point trail. Really fun trail along cliff wall in the shade (midday). Some narrow sections, see an old structure (possibly a granery?). After reaching the petroglyph, you go up a steep section to the top of the mesa and it's an easy flat stroll back to the museum.

Mesa top loop: Pueblo lived here from AD 600 to 1300.

10 stops:

1) Pithouse AD 600: houses called this because below ground for insulation. One of the earliest permanent dwellings. Go down ladder from wood/mud roof. Hearth in middle, deflector prevent air drafts and allow smoke to go up chimney. Antechamber (left) stored crops (corn, squash, seeds, nuts, fruits).

2) Navajo Canyon lookout:

Called Mesa verde bc of blanket of green. 18 inches of rain a year, harvested efficiently by pueblo people.

3) Square Tower House (1200-1300AD):

Sandstone blocks, really well preserved.

Found in the house: original wooden ceilings/floor, reed matt, feather cloth, person figurine, rope, mugs, mural of bighorn sheep.

4) Pithouses and Pueblos

pithouse from 3 centuries: 600's (dug deeper), 800's (single story houses above out of wood and mud plaster, make kivas and roomblocks with shared walls, first village), 900's (started using stone masonry with deep kiva, second village). Pithouses rebuilt every 10-20 years.

5) Mesa top sites:

Generations built homes in top of older ones.

One site with 3 villages: charred sticks, single row stone wall, then double stone masonry walls.

Started building towers: purpose unknown (defense, refuge, communication, astronomical?).

Large Kiva 1074 CE.

Matrolinial families (passed to youngest daughter). Everyone part of a klan (e.g. oak, turkey, little sun...). Inherit clan from mother.

Stories (hamaha) passed verbally through Karis language. Writing it down is forbidden.

6) Sun point pueblo- Corn Mother:

1200 CE

One of the last mesa top pueblos here. Took stones to build cliff dwellings.

7) Sunpoint -downtown mesa verde.

35 cliff dwellings (can see 10 from left: fire temple, new fire house, oak tree house, sun temple, mummy house, cliff palace, twenty room cliff dwellings, fifteen room cliff dwellings (tower), sunset house, many window house).

Thousands of people lives here.

Nearly 30 rooms, maybe 50 ppl.

Imagine sounds of all these people echoing from the cliffs.

8) Close up of Oak Tree House (AD 1250): about 60 ppl. Close to water inside canyon. Springs that seep and filter from canyon walls. Maybe moved into hills to avoid conflict.