Canyons and Cliff Dwellings in Colorado
Hey Guys! After two weeks fighting yellow jackets in Colorado Springs we were ready to move on. While we loved Cheyenne Mountain State Park…we got really tired of fighting for our food and running from the yellow jackets. It took us two days to drive to Montrose. The plan was to hit a state park during our overnight to get in a hike to a waterfall, but we got there later than we’d anticipated so we missed the hike. We weren’t too upset…it would have been another hour drive and we were all pretty done driving/riding for the day.
Our spot in Montrose was fantastic! We had shade pretty much throughout the entire day…which was welcomed with the 90° plus temps we were getting. I’ve started making notes on each of our spots. We stay at so many places they can get jumbled up in our memories. Did that place have good cell service? What were the sites like? Did we have a spot we wanted to get next time?
The main reason we stayed in Montrose was to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It’s called the Black Canyon because the walls are usually in shadows (there are parts of the canyon walls that only get about thirty minutes of sunlight a day) making the canyon look black. This canyon started forming millions of years ago as the Gunnison River cut it’s way through rock eventually making one of the steepest cliffs in North America. Even with the dizzying height of the canyon, you can still hear the Gunnison River at the bottom as it continues to carve away the Black Canyon. At somewhere around 2,000 feet high and only about 1,000 feet wide the Black Canyon may not be the deepest or biggest canyon in the US, but it definitely has a beauty all it’s own. Plus, it’s one of the least visited NPS units which means fewer people. We had most viewpoints to ourselves. We did a few hikes, made our way down the dirt road to see the Gunnison River at the bottom of the canyon and went to an astronomy program one evening. The park never felt crowded.
We hadn’t planned on going to Mesa Verde National Park from Montrose, but we realized if we waited until we were closer later on in our loop, all of the tours would be closed. We’ve always enjoyed the National Park Units that protect and tell the history of the Ancestral Pueblo people so we had high hopes for this park. Mesa Verde National Park protects around 5,000 different archaeological sites which include almost 600 cliff dwellings. The Ancestral Pueblo people made this area their home for 700 years. We saw so many cliff dwellings all along the walls of the cliffs that make up this park. Now, the most important thing you need to know about visiting Mesa Verde NP is that you have to take a Ranger guided tour to actually get down into one of the dwellings. We did the Cliff Palace tour and we definitely weren’t the only ones there. The tour was packed. Our Ranger talked so much that we didn’t get to do much looking. When we tried to lag behind to snag some pictures or look he would hurry us along. The tour was pretty disappointing. The NPS needs to either give more time between tours or make the tour groups smaller.
One of the cooler things we learned was that the Ancestral Pueblo people would use corn-on-the-cobs to chink in the spaces in the walls. We saw a 700 year old corn cob. We think we know quite a bit about the Anasazi people. We know they use to farm on the tops of the mesa’s that their cliff homes were built on. We know they made baskets and later on pottery. We know they lived in communities. We know they hunted. We even know how they collected water. What we don’t know is why they suddenly abandoned the Mesa Verde region.
Going on a tour of one of the cliff dwellings is a workout. You go down stairs, up ladders, and on some tours you crawl through tunnels. The Ancestral Pueblo people didn’t have the luxury of stairs and ladders. They used hand and foot holds to make their way down or up the cliff faces. We were told by a visiting archaeologist that each trail had a story that went with it so they could remember what hand or foot hold to use next. It was also a type of security…if you didn’t know the story, you’d have a harder time finding your way. I’m not sure how they could know that…but, I’m not an archaeologist.
Let’s talk foodies. We found a few places we liked. One was a Mexican place called Mi Mexico. Guys, we were really surprised by this place. We went into it not expecting anything spectacular, but we liked it so much we ate there three times in the two weeks we were in the area. Another of our favorites was a little place called Crash Burger where we got some very tasty burgers and fries.
There were flowers everywhere! They were so gorgeous!! I might have taken a few dozen pictures of various flowers/weeds that I found. Y’all know how I like my pretties.
Well, Guys, I’m going to save the rest of our Montrose area meanderings for the next post. Stay tuned for an epic mountain drive, ghost towns, and another National Park Service unit!
See y’all down the road!
#NationalParkTour