The Incredible Landscapes Continue: 07/09
To close the loop on our trip, the views that we arrived to were continually indescribably magnificent. One might believe that it would be possible to be experience the scale and magnanimity of these vast landscapes in a single trip, but trust us when we say there are plenty of canyons to spend multiple lifetimes exploring just one of these parks.
The view from Imperial Point (highest vista 8,803')
on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Just taking a sneak-peek at what the Grand Canyon has to offer, we stopped by the North Rim visitor center to glance at Bright Angel Point, and to provide some idea of the scale of the canyon, the river below of which you might be able to see in the next picture, is approximately 4000 feet lower compared to the vista.
Bright Angel Point (8,081'), Vista from the North Rim
Alas, we still had a long journey at which we planned to drive to Mesa Verda and Great Sand Dunes pit-stopping at Four Corners on top of driving through the Navajo Nation National Monument.
The iconic view from the
Navajo Nation National Monument
After several hours of nondescript Arizona driving, we arrived at Mesa Verde national park at last as the sun was setting. We quickly set up camp, and Debra and I stayed up just a bit later to grab a few frames of the milky way one last time.
View of the Milky Way and our campsite neighbors
at Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde offers ranger guided tours of the cliff dwellings, which are the treasure of the park. These sites are the remnants of an ancient Puebloan society and culture of which archaeology has only really just begun, but the sites themselves have awarded this park UNESCO status. Unfortunately for us, the morning tours for that day were all booked the previous day before 3pm as per rules of the park they must be booked in person, which we couldn't do with our schedule. So we were left with scrapping Great Sand Dunes for a chance to check out Mesa Verde and its cliff dwellings more thoroughly as Great Sand Dunes is a relatively quick drive from Summit County and could be seen on another trip.
Spruce Tree House
Closed due to rockfall, but can be seen
from across the canyon
Cliff Palace, the largest site
As we drove around the park, you might find it hard that people had lived there for more than a thousand years, but the sites themselves are really quite homely. For scale, the first picture above of Cliff palace you can see some people on the precipice to the left of the image, where the crowd is likely ~60 people. This large cliff dwelling is truly deserving of its name.
Our tour was of Balcony House, which you'll see how it got it's name!
A steep ladder to get to the ledge of Balcony House
Dark Hallways leading to the main feature
Another view of the ladder, its about 30 feet tall
One of the unfortunate results of tourism within this particular park is the direct impact we have by unknowningly touching the stone. In these images, you can see certain sections of the structures that have turned black, purely as a result of contact with human oils over the years. The gentleman in the above picture is even touching the stone wall. The rangers try their best to enforce the no-touching rule and warn tourists as to minimize their individual impacts.
The balcony of Balcony House
Side view
Overview of this majestic site
Some sections require getting on all fours
Such as this tunnel to exit the cliff dwelling
Thus completes our trip of the Grand Circle; Arches, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, and Mesa Verde, with a few others thrown in. For anyone with curious about seeing what the American Southwest has to offer, I highly recommend this trip!
Our quest to visit all the National Parks has just started, but for now, our national parks appetite has been satiated, until next time!