Changing Campgrounds and Exploring Ruins--April 8

Tuesday we changed to another Passport America campground as the first one only gave the discount for one night. Before we left, I took a picture of the sights from our camp site.
The first picture is Mesa Verde National Park.

These are a few of the horses we could see from our site.

After changing campgrounds (the second one is in the town of Cortez, 8 miles from the first one), we went sightseeing. Our first stop was the Anasazi Heritage Center north of Cortez.

As you can see from their sign, it is run by the Bureau of Land Management, not the National Park Service. We enjoyed the museum as it was hands-on exploration. There were computers with data about archaeological digs, microscopes with seeds, pottery bits, animal skins, rocks, etc. to look at to discern subtle differences, a grinding station, and a weaving station. We could have spent the entire day looking at the artifacts, but we moved outside to walk the trail to the Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos.

The Anasazi or Ancestral Puebloans (politically correct) were resourceful. They added on to sites already being used to fit their needs. Often fire destroyed a pithouse and a new one was built from the storage area of the first. All sites have at least one kiva (ceremonial, round pit). Most sites we have visited have many kivas. Some believe each family or clan had their own kiva and the community had one large kiva to serve all.

We walked from the ruins to the overlook of the McPhee Resevoir. The plaque identifies the mountains we saw in the distance.

We left the Anasazi Heritage Center to visit the town of Dolores. We read about a goose on display in Dolores that was in use until 1950. A goose was the means of transporting mail, goods, and supplies to remote mountain areas. The front was a truck or bus and the back was some type of boxcar. Each goose was different.
Bob noticed the chain drive on the wheels of the boxcar. We learned that locomotives were not as economical to move the mail and supplies to remote mountain areas, thus the goose was created.
We explored the town of Dolores which has many old buildings, then we drove northwest to visit Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. The visitor center for the monument is located at the Anasazi Heritage Center. We picked up maps and brochures there and found our way to the ruins. The park is new and only has three areas you can visit. We chose Lowry Pueblo ruins as it was the easiest to access. We drove down a paved road for about 4 miles, then the road was gravel for the last 5 miles. We expected to be the only people at the site, but there were three other vehicles ahead of us and several more arrived as we were leaving the site.

One section of the ruins is under protective cover. In it, you view a kiva from the side instead of from above as with the others we had seen. The ruins outside were backfilled to protect them from damage, but the rocks outlining the structures were visible.

We drove back to the rv for a late lunch. Later in the afternoon we decided to pick up a couple of geocaches. We found two of the three we had downloaded. The weather was starting to cool, so we picked up some bread and veggies at Wal-Mart, then headed back to the rv to keep warm.

The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday were not promising--rain mixed with snow for both days. The high for Wednesday will not make it out of the 40s--BRRRRRR! We will have to change our plans for Wednesday--no hike at Mesa Verde! Maybe we will visit downtown Cortez to see what it has to offer.