A National Park! Wow!

What a lovely way to spend the first day of 2009.

Today we traveled to Mesa Verde National Park - my first visit to a national park (one of the sad consequences of growing up with a mother who refuses to camp - I've spent many summer vacations at a lake house in northern Wisconsin as a result)!! It was truly spectacular. Always a sucker for fun facts, I was especially impressed by the park ranger who led our tour to Spruce Tree House, a cliff dwelling dating back to the 13th century. She gave us a wealth of information about Mesa Verde and the ancestral Pueblans who lived there hundreds of years ago. I was excited to apply the knowledge I'd gained at Acoma Sky City yesterday, another Pueblo settlement. While there were many similarities between the cultural practices of each group, the cliff dwellings were completely different from the village in Sky City. While Sky City is still inhabited today, the cliff dwellings were abandoned about seven hundred years ago, leaving behind the remains of a complex society. The dwellings, of which we will hopefully be able to include pictures, are amazingly preserved, and it's incredible to imagine what life might have been like there a thousand years ago. We were also able to see other cliff dwellings and some spectacular views by taking a car ride atop the Mesa. I don't know why I'm so surprised every time I'm in the southwest, but I'm always caught unprepared by the beauty of the views. We were lucky to catch an impressive sunset this evening, and we really did have a lovely day of sightseeing after some long days of travel.

Now we're having a nice night in, filled with delicious Italian food, a movie, and work on our dreaded e-ports (I now have four artifacts! Woot!). Tomorrow we're off to preview Rock Point, our first Navajo experience! Yay!

Stay tuned...