TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 VIDEO

TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 PART THREE MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK BACKCOUNTRY HIKE AUGUST 2010

Point Lookout at the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park

All national parks are treasures, but Mesa Verde National Park is special.  The first park to preserve a cultural landscape in addition to a physical landscape, Mesa Verde does not allow backcountry access in order to preserve ancient cliff dwellings like Long House on Wetherill Mesa:

Famous cliff dwellings like Cliff Palace and Balcony House on Chapin Mesa are open to the public but accessible only by purchasing tickets for seasonal ranger-guided tours.  Spruce Tree House, located in Spruce Tree Canyon below the mesa top where the Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum is situated and open year-round, does not require ranger guided tours in the summer and is consequently the most accessible and most crowded of the cliff dwelling locations in Mesa Verde.  Only a handful of trails in the park allow hiking, such as the Petroglyph Point trail in Spruce Tree canyon.  Though the high desert landscape is spectacular, the concentration of cliff dwelling architecture in the canyons of Mesa Verde draws visitors to this park.  However, for every accessible site in the park there are countless others that are inaccessible by National Park Service mandate, so most of Mesa Verde's cultural treasures are never viewed by park visitors.

Spruce Tree House

Spruce Tree House

The trail to Petroglyph Point (between the boulders!)

Petroglyph Point

In 2006, NPS decided to allow backcountry access for the park's centennial celebration in the form of ranger guided backcountry hikes.  These guided hikes provided visitors the opportunity to see sites like Mug House and Oak Tree House that are never open to the public.  In 2010, NPS decided it was once again time to open access to the Mesa Verde backcountry by providing guided hiking opportunities through the non-profit Mesa Verde Institute, the educational arm of the Mesa Verde Museum Association.  This summer, three guided hikes are offered: Mug House, Spring House and the Wetherill Mesa Experience which includes several sites.  Mug House and Wetherill Mesa are scheduled until September 6, 2010, but Spring House is scheduled through September 30, 2010 - a perfect fall hike in Mesa Verde!  During my August stay, my friend Laurel and I participated in the Wetherill Mesa Experience where we ogled the Badger House community, Kodak House, Nordenskiold Site 12, Double House and from across Long Canyon, Daniels House.  And we also encountered a wild horse.

For $35, the Wetherill Mesa Experience is a 6 hour ranger guided tour that is limited to 14 people and includes lunch.  Wetherill Mesa is located 27 miles from the park entrance and 12 miles from the Far View Visitor Center turnoff.  Accessible by vehicle only in summer, Wetherill Mesa seems remote compared to the rest of the park. We met the ranger guide for our hike at the ranger station kiosk that also serves as the starting point for the tram tour of the mesa that provides viewing of Long House, Step House, Badger House and Nordenskiold Site 16.  Just like Cliff Palace and other tour sites on Chapin Mesa, tour tickets for Long House on Wetherill Mesa must be purchased at the Far View Visitor Center beforehand.  Tickets for the guided backcountry hikes must be purchased 24 hours in advance of the scheduled hike. After meeting Ranger Marie and three other hiking companions, and choosing our sandwich for lunch, we headed out to the Badger House Community to learn about pithouses.

The Badger House community is open to all visitors at Wetherill Mesa, and the sheltered pithouse sites give you background on the people that inhabited Mesa Verde before they started building cliff dwellings around the year 1200.  Since the Ancestral Puebloans are the ancestors of contemporary Pueblo Indians, these pithouse sites connect modern tribes to their prehistoric past.  Ranger Marie did a great job of demonstrating the connection from prehistory to today's Indians by comparing customs and artifacts to current practices.  Following the tram road before turning off onto a dirt track, Ranger Marie then guided us past small treasures like an unexcavated site and a small pile of potsherds.  Taking the back way to the Kodak House overlook, we learned that early Mesa Verde archaeologist Gustaf Nordenskiold kept his camera equipment in this cliff dwelling during excavation, hence the name Kodak House.  We also inadvertently timed our arrival to spend a few minutes with visitors from the tram tour marveling at the site, and then gratefully left the beaten path behind.

Kodak House

On our way to Nordenskiold Site 12, we encountered one of Mesa Verde's friskier residents - a wild horse. Referred to as "trepass horses" by NPS, the small population of wild horses has wandered across arbitrary geographic boundaries from the adjacent Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Reservation south of the park.  The presence of the horses in the national park may be a boundary issue for the NPS, though the visitors are thrilled to see them.  The horses are often affectionately named by park employees and their lineage traced by distinctive markings.  On this day we encountered a young male horse that was intensely curious about our little group. So curious in fact, that we were feeling somewhat crowded and Ranger Marie decided that in the interest of everyone's safety (including the horse) we should abandon our trek to Site 12 temporarily while she consulted with law enforcement rangers and a park biologist.  So we paused in our trek and ate lunch.

After our horse friend went on his way, we continued on ours, first to overlook Nordenskiold Site 12, and then to a Long Canyon overlook to see Double House and Daniels House.  Site 12 has petroglyphs that I couldn't spot, but Plank House was visible across the canyon.  Long Canyon provided spectacular views and proved once again that Ancestral Puebloans had an eye for beauty in situating their dwellings.  Double House was built on two levels and the top masonry still had vigas (wood beams) in place.

Nordenskiold Site 12

The view down Long Canyon to Daniels House

Ranger Marie gives the scoop on Double House

Double House

After marveling at the sites in Long Canyon, we hoofed it back to the Wetherill Mesa ranger station kiosk in the afternoon sun.  Once we made it back to the tram road, we found good news for tired hikers in that the tram will stop to pick you up if you request a ride.  Once back at the ranger station kiosk, Ranger Marie had to endure some ribbing from her co-workers about being the "Horse Whisperer", but we thanked her wholeheartedly for such a great hike and wildlife experience!  Mother Nature also smiled on our Mesa Verde backcountry experience - dark clouds had come and gone during the course of the day, but only after we headed back to our car for the drive home did the heavens open up and demonstrate the might of desert monsoon season.  We even navigated hail on the road, but by the time we reached Far View, we were rewarded with a rainbow.

No backcountry hike would be complete without a good meal at the end of the day, so we chose to dine in the Far View Lodge's Metate Room restaurant to round out the Mesa Verde experience.  The Metate Room strives to present regional cuisine to park visitors in the form of the Southwest's agricultural traditions: turkey, beans, blue corn, trout, chiles, bison, and prickly pear cactus.  Laurel and I dined with our friend and the parks' Chief of Interpretation, Tessy, and sampled menu items like Blue Corn and Pine Dusted Trout, Cinnamon Chile Pork Tenderloin, and Herb Encrusted Salmon.  The restaurant features local wines and microbrews and my dirty Martini was concocted with Jackalope Gin, a spirit that includes local juniper crafted in Palisade, Colorado.

The view from the Metate Room

Blue Corn and Pine Dusted Trout

Cinnamon Chile Pork Tenderloin

Herb Encrusted Salmon

The capper to all this delicious food was Sweet Potato Bread Pudding.  Need I say more?  And speaking of potatoes, check out this blog post by Todd at Four Corners Hikes - Mesa Verde who also participated in the Wetherill Mesa Experience.  In June, Todd participated in the Mesa Verde Institute's Spring House Hike with a botanist looking for potatoes in the park - not French Fries, but actual potato plants native to Peru that would demonstrate the extent of the Ancestral Puebloans trading network 1000 years ago.

If you take an end-of-summer trip to Mesa Verde National Park, explore the backcountry with the Mesa Verde Institute.  Brush up on Mesa Verde's history (and prehistory!) before you visit by reading Institute publications like Mesa Verde: The First 100 Years and Photographing Mesa Verde: Nordenskiold and Now.

The Mesa Verde Institute was created by the Mesa Verde Museum Association in 2006 during the park's centennial celebration.  MVMA is a member association and offers a 20% discount to it's members on all Institute programs (like backcountry hikes!).  Explore MVMA membership and support Mesa Verde National Park.

Junket Ratings:

Mesa Verde Institute's Wetherill Mesa Experience: Junk in the Trunk!

Far View Lodge's Metate Room: Junk-O-Rama

TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 PART TWO UTAH TO COLORADO AUGUST 2010

Ted and I parted ways after 4 days in Salt Lake City - he headed to Baja California to fish and I headed to Colorado for business.  Our last evening in SLC for Outdoor Retailer we attended an industry party hosted by Liberty Mountain that was all the happs, and the source of some great road trip music too.  LM deserves props not only for good food and drink, but also for hiring local SLC band, the Daniel Day Trio to perform their smooth jazz lounge versions of popular hits from other bands like Guns-n-Roses, Nirvana and Oasis. Once we realized they were also playing songs from Depeche Mode and New Order, we were hooked.  We bought the CD.  So next time you're in Salt Lake City, give a listen to the Daniel Day Trio.

 I eased across Utah on my way to Colorado Friday morning via Highway 89 and Interstate 70 through Moab.  I didn't make any sightseeing stops, just enjoyed the scenery and the ride.  I passed through the San Rafael Swell (being considered for National Monument status) and over the Green and Colorado Rivers into Moab before heading into Colorado from Monticello (unlike Thomas Jefferson's place, pronounced "Monti-sello").

San Rafael Swell

Colorado Riverway, Moab

Bike bridge at the Colorado Riverway

The corridor from Monticello, UT to Cortez, CO is part of the Four Corners area of the southwest.  Named for the geographical convention that allows you to access 4 states - Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico - almost simultaneously as they meet at four corners.  This area is also archaeologically rich as the ancient home of the Ancestral Puebloans (better known by the politically incorrect term Anasazi), ancestors of the Pueblo, Hopi and Zuni Indians, who built spectacularly situated cliff-dwellings amongst many other types of masonry architecture.  The high desert climate of the Colorado Plateau and the low volume of contemporary human population has preserved this architecture to a striking degree, though in many parks and monuments the dwellings have been rebuilt and stabilized by archaeologists.  This area is also home to the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute, who are not descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans.  Cortez is the gateway town to Mesa Verde National Park, the first park to preserve the cultural treasures of the Ancestral Puebloans.  Mesa Verde is "green table" in Spanish, and refers to the distinct plateau of green tableland that looms over Cortez at 7000 to 8500 foot elevation.  The ancient native population may have been growing corn, beans and squash on the mesa top, but the Cortez area is heavily agricultural surrounding the mesa below.

Staying with my friend Laurel in Cortez, we decided to celebrate all this agricultural bounty by attending the Cortez Saturday Farmer's Market and purchase groceries for the week.  I had come to Mesa Verde to do some retail consulting work for Laurel's organization, the Mesa Verde Museum Association.  As the Executive Director of this cooperating association, Laurel and her staff raise funds for Mesa Verde National Park by operating visitor center and museum bookstores in the park.  

After acquiring provisions for the week, Laurel and I set out on the Trail of the Ancients, a scenic byway that connects many ancient pueblo sites including the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument designation given to many ancient pueblo sites scattered throughout southwestern Colorado.  Laurel and I had visited Hovenweep National Monument on my last visit, so we hoped to pick up where we left off.  Beginning at the Anasazi Heritage Center with it's fine museum and beautiful native garden, we collected our info and set out for Lowry Pueblo.

Lowry Pueblo with preservation shelter over stabilized room blocks

Laurel enters the re-built pueblo interior

1000 year old plaster on the walls

Kiva stairwell - no large people allowed!

Lowry's caretaker - Western Fence Lizard

In contrast to Lowry Pueblo's stabilized structures, Sand Canyon Pueblo has been excavated, but never stabilized in any way.  Some pueblo ruins in their current state look like piles of rubble - because they are. However, the desert landscape can still be read by archaeologists to learn the history of ancient peoples.

The monsoon season got the better of us at Sand Canyon but we viewed the entire site before it began to rain. Dinner plans centered around farmer's market goodies, so we employed the fragrant basil from the market and Laurel's backyard to create Rotisserie Chicken with Peaches, Walnuts and Basil (which became Rotisserie Chicken with Nectarines, Pine Nuts and Basil in my version).  An excellent cheater recipe that utilizes rotisserie chicken from the grocery store provides a perfect canvas for ripe summer fruit and basil.  This recipe and a tomato basil salad are courtesy of Sunset Magazine - how would I eat without it?  I also found a Bellini style drink with a bottle of Cava (Spanish champagne) nectarines and peach nectar for a summer cocktail.

Next stop on the southwest road trip: Backcountry hiking in Mesa Verde National Park!

Junket Ratings:

Daniel Day Trio: Junk in the Trunk!

Cortez Farmer's Market: Junk-O-Rama

Anasazi Heritage Center: Junk-O-Rama