Mesa Verde 1

Mesa Verde is another example of an area where there were many ancestral Pueblos living in Cliff dwellings. This is the first view of the Grand Palace. We joined a guided tour that took us down and around corners and cliffs so that we could walk right through the dwellings (well, right in front, not actually through - they keep people out of the actual buildings to preserve them). They had 3 and 4 storied buildings, several Kivas (thought to be ceremonial rooms, round about 20' across and would have a roof and a ladder to come up the middle of the roof. They were also designed with air vents and deflectors for the fire. Lots of stairs/ladders up and down - felt like kids and had fun at it!

Monument Valley 5

This is a picture of some of the roads that we went on - on the tour bus! Carole managed to avoid getting us stuck in mud or dunes, and only had one major bounce (got air)where some of the folks went flying out of their seats.
After we returned from the tour we visited the museum and saw clips of some of the movies filmed in the area. Barb got up close and personal with John Wayne - well sort of. Did I mention the red dust??? We continued on from Monument valley to Cortez, couldn't wait to hit the showers. Tomorrow on to Mesa Verde.

Monument Valley 4

Some of the formations were arches, while another was called the totem pole. The cowboy in the red shirt posed for the picture, of course.

Monument Valley 3

Our guide took us to see a Hogan. It is a Navajo abode, build with fence post sized logs and then covered with a clay mixture that is water proof. She remembered living in one as a child, in the summer - everyone had their own "space" but there were several generations. Susie, is 96 or 97, they are not sure, but she still comes to live here during the summer. She carded some wool (did a great job) and then had a hand held spinning bobbin to make the yarn.

Monument Valley 2

We were up early to catch our tour - for 3.5 hours in the "bus" - back of a truck with seats. Our guide was Carol, a Navajo who handled the truck and the dialogue extremely well. We hadn't realized until we got back just how much red dust we were collecting in our hair, our ears, our clothes - every where! (Laurie had an interesting description...) This site, with the hole very high up, also had petroglyphs along the walls.

Monument Valley 1

We went to stay at Goudlings - a great campsite and centre for tours of Monument Valley. The "mitten" formation is pretty famous and was used in several movies, particularly with John Wayne. The campsite has a museum about the Gouldings and how they got Hollywood interested in making movies here. We even got to watch "Stagecoach" and you could see the places where they filmed it. It is in Navajo nation - and they were often extras pretending to be Apaches or whatever was needed for the movies.

the Needles to Monument Valley

These pictures are all taken within 2 hours heading south to Monument valley. Amazing variety of landscapes!