Monday 2 June San Juan Inn, UT

Our second day here, this time taking in:
Mesa Verde
Natural Bridges National Monument
Mexican Hat Rock (well, ya gotta, ha'int yah?)

Mesa Verde
As most of our tip focused on the natural forces which have shaped this dramatic canvass, I thought it would be both interesting and different to see how man has left his mark also.
Mesa Verde Mesa Verde National Park.

Mesa Verde (Spanish for Green Table), offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300.
Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.
These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.
The ancestral pueblo peoples moved from mesa-top dwellings within their farmlands (they grew marrows, beans and grain), as water became more scarce, ad moved into areas and cliff-ledges in order to tap some of this vital resource seeping from the porous rock.
However, it is not known why they suddenly left the area, and in fact left the tradition of such cave/ledge dwellings, but it was not thought through violence or tribal dispute.
They had systems of ritualistic worship and an almost municipal approach to social governance. Nevertheless, they threw out their dead with rubbish and crop waste, over the edge of their cliff-side hamlets!
Strange.

I left Mesa Verde, wishing we (and the NPS, archaeologists), knew more about these people. Something didn’t quite add up….

Highlights:
Cliff Palace
Spruce Tree House

Natural Bridges National Monument
Natural Bridges preserves some of the finest examples of natural stone architecture in the southwest.
On a tree-covered mesa next to deep sandstone canyons, three natural bridges formed when meandering streams slowly cut through the canyon walls. In honor of the Native Americans that made this area their home.
The bridges are named "Sipapu", "Kachina", and "Owachomo".
Sipapu and Kachina are the second and third largest known natural bridges (after, of course, Rainbow Bridge), in the world.
I have stood under both Rainbow Bridge and Sipapu. Sipapu involved a strenuous ¾ mile trek down the cliff-face with some ladders and some impossibly indistinct scrambling trails, with a decent of over 500 metres. The return (upward) trek was not so bad, because one’s bodyweight is forward, in the direction of travel. Downward was a bit hairy!
A 9 mile trek connects all three bridges here running along the course of the rivers which form White, Deer and Armstrong Canyons.

Mexican Hat Rock
5 miles north of our hotel.
Banged off a couple of shots of this up-turned sombrero atop a 400 foot red sandstone spire – it had to be done.

Time prevented us from doing Valley of the Gods, but we have decided to do this and Gooseneck State Park, first thing tomorrow.

Journey notes and Details
Northeast along UT-163 towards Bluff
Just past Bluff take east division, (still UT-163) past Montezuma Creek and Aneth, to join US-160 east-bound.
Take US-491 north to Cortez, then right (east) again onto US-160.
Park is just before Macos.
Return to Bluff the same (reversed) way but take a right onto US-191 towards Blanding.
Just before Blanding head west on UT-95 to Natural Bridges
After Natural Bridges, head south on a road which becomes a track (local-261)
Distance: 341 miles
Duration: 11 hrs, 35 mins