Since the last blog, we have been on the move, however, we lost both our cell phone and Internet access on day two of our journey back to Arizona. Bob was able to get us back on line today, so I'm going to attempt to catch up on our travels. We stayed another day in Mancos because there were just too many fascinating things to see at the Mesa Verde National Park in one day. The RV facility that we stayed at had horses and Dharma finally got the courage to go nose to nose with one horse for a quick second and then decided that maybe that was not such a good idea. The horse was not afraid of Dharma, but Dharma took a quick two step backward shortly after Bob snapped this picture. If you notice, I have a winter jacket on because we woke up to a temperature of 31 degrees that morning. It made for a brisk walk around the park. We spent the entire day touring ruins that we had not been able to see the previous day.
We took a self guided tour to Spruce Tree House , the third largest cliff dwelling among several hundred in the Mesa Verde Park. It was constructed sometime between 1200 and 1276 A.D. by the Anasazi Indians. It was built into a natural cave and was the home of about 100 people. It had about 114 rooms and eight kivas or ceremonial chambers. These dwellings are absolutely amazing considering the tools that the Indians had to work with at that time. Each brick was cut by hand from the sandstone rock that is in the area. Archaeologists are not sure why the Anasazi's moved from the top of the cliffs - whether it was for safety or because the soil on top of the cliffs was no longer good for growing crops, but for what ever reason, I cannot even begin to imagine what their lives must have been like.
We were able to climb about six feet down into one of the Kiva's in the main court yard. A ladder at the top of the Kiva was the only way to enter and exit the room. When the Kiva's were not being used for ceremonial purposes, the Kiva's were used for work areas - like weaving, etc. They had a fire pit in the center and an amazing ventilation system that brought fresh air in and circulated it along the floor. Sometimes there were tunnels connecting the Kiva to other area in the dwelling. They were amazing engineers and you cannot help but leave the area with a feeling of awe for the life they lived and their amazing accomplishments. We only saw one section of the ruins in the two days that we were there; the other section was closed for the winter. Should the opportunity ever arise, we would highly recommend a visit to the Mesa Verde National Park - definitely a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. We were on the road again early Friday morning after waking up to a brisk 31 cloudy degrees with the forecaster predicting snow in the higher elevations - definitely time to move on! We headed out in cloudy weather had encountered some rain along the way to our next destination - Arizona, and the Blue Ridge Reservoir area north of Clints Wells. We have dry camped here in the past and have a favorite spot off one of the forest roads north of the Ranger Station. Dharma loved it here. She could lay in the sun and wander around in the woods. We hiked and drove around on some of the back roads while we were there. We did have rain one day, but other than that the weather was beautiful - except for the fact that we had to resort to turning on the furnace one night because the temperature the morning before was 42 in the 5th wheel. Just a tad to cold for all our old bones. Temperatures during the day were always in the low 70's and Dharma just moved from one sunny spot to another - relaxing in her usual fashion!
The only disappointing part of our stay was that we did not see any wild life other than an occasional squirrel or crow. The area was very dry and I don't know if that was a factor. We did notice that there were no new pine cones on the trees and no acorns on the oak trees. Maybe because the food supply was so scarce, the animals migrated to other areas in search of food. We have always seen wild life when we have been camping in this area - even if just cows! We finally took a ride down to Clear Creek and from there up onto the rim in search of deer or elk but to no avail. The rim road has deteriorated since we were last here and it was a bumpy ride. We did see some magnificent views from the rim - not quite like the Rockies, but unique in their own way.
From here we headed down to Sedona to stay at Sedona Pines Resort for 3-4 days before descending into those dreaded triple digit temperatures. We hope to be back in the valley by Friday. In the meantime, we are going to explore Sedona since neither Bob nor I have been here in years. It has definitely changed - construction on 179 made the trip in a challenge for anyone pulling a trailer or driving a motor home. Thank goodness Bob is an expert.