Mesa Verde NP & The Needles

Saturday June 10, 2006

Even though it was a really quiet campground at Mesa Verde we had a horrible night sleeping. It got real cold in the middle of the night and we both had horrible headaches when we woke up the next morning around 6:00 am. We had the 2nd guided ranger hike to do at 8:30, so we had to break up camp, pack everything away, get it all organized in the car, etc. We’re both really getting sick of schlepping all the stupid gear out of the car, building camp, gettig a bad night’s sleep, then schlepping it all back into the car.

The Cliff Palace guided hike was great. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde, with dozens of rooms and 21 kivas. (A kiva is a round, covered, underground fire room used for socializing, discussing political events, and your general merriment. A kiva ceremony is very sacred to the Ancient Pueblos, and they keep them private to non-native folks even today.) Cliff Palace was also home to some Great Horned Owl babies that hatched a few months ago, and we were able to see them perched in one of the high towers of the dwelling. (One other note: most people call the Native Americans who lived at Mesa Verde the Anasazi. The word Anasazi has come to mean “ancient people”, but in actuality it is a Navajo word meaning “enemy ancestors”. In the past 10 years or so the Pueblos have requested that the term “Anasazi” not be used in referring to their people, and thus the term “Ancestral Pueblo” is the more preferred term.) After an hour or so of examining the ruins up close, and again climbing out of the dwelling up steep stairs and steps, we headed off for Canyonlands.

We visited Canyonlands National Park about 3 years ago, but we only went to 1 part of it, the Island in the Sky District. This time we were stopping in another part of the park called the Needles District, about an hour south of Island in the Sky. (And to show you how large Canyonlands is, there’s actually a third district called The Maze which takes about 90 minutes to drive to from Island in the Sky.) We originally were planning on spending a night at the Needles, but after talking it over we decided that we’d rather do a short hike there, then push on to Moab and hopefully find a campsite that we could stay at for 2 days in or near Arches National Park. The temperatures really started to rise once we headed into Canyonlands. Whereas it was in the 40’s at night at Mesa Verde, and probably about 75 when we left at 11:00 am, Canyonlands was in the 90’s by the time we got there at 1:00 pm. We did a short 3 mile hike along slickrock in the Needles, which was plenty in that heat. The Needles was impressive, but not nearly as much as Island in the Sky to the north, with its huge canyon vistas of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

We headed on up the road to Moab, about an hour north, and that’s where the aggravation really started to set in. We knew that the Arches campground was popular, so it wasn’t a surprise when we showed up at 5:15 and it was full. We were told that if we wanted a spot for the next night that we’d have to show up at 7:30 am and wait in line to try to reserve a site. Also, one of the other things we wanted to do at Arches was to hike in the Fiery Furnace, a tangled web of spires and fins in Arches that has no trails and is only allowed to be entered on a ranger guided hike. Unfortunately all the hikes for tomorrow were booked, but we got one for Monday morning. We headed out of Arches to find another campsite. We knew that there were lots of BLM sites along the Colorado River just outside Moab, so we headed up there. I guess we were a little naïve, thinking we could grab one of those sites easily, but we forgot it was a Saturday night, and now getting close to 6:00 pm. We went by 6 campgrounds and found nothing. (There were some sites, but they were right next to the highway without any trees or bushes as buffers.) Getting really frustrated and not looking forward to having to drive even farther away from Arches to find a site, we decided to hotel it again. We really didn’t want to keep spending nights in hotels all the time (for one, the money to do that won’t last forever, and that means we’ll have less time to stay out here this summer), but we’re so sick of the schlep as well as the lack of sleep which leads to the headachy days, that we decided to do it.

After checking in and taking showers we went out for dinner at the Moab Brew Pub where we discussed our options. We both felt that, while we’re having a great time seeing the parks, hiking, etc., we’re really pretty miserable when it comes to the moving camp every night, or even every other night. With all the supplies, clothes, food, etc., that we have, it’s just driving us crazy and really making the trip not fun. Since that needs to be stopped right away, we’ve decided to change our strategy a bit. If more hotels/cabins are the way to more fun, than that’s what will happen. Also, the major places we really want to see on this trip are Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier, so we’ve decided to go up and do them instead of waiting until later in the trip when we’re really aggravated with everything. So we’re going to be skipping Capitol Reef, Bryce and the Grand Canyon (though we are still going to Escalante for at least one night). Capitol Reef we’re going to drive through, Bryce we’ve been to before, and we don’t think the Grand Canyon is going anywhere so we can get to that some other time. After that it’s up to Wyoming where the heat won’t be driving Sage batty. After getting that all out of the way (and really, it made us feel about 1,000 time better), we chowed on some incredible jalapeno beer fries. After dinner it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest and some internet research on places to stay in Grand Teton. When we checked our voice mails on the cell phone, Sage had one from Travis. We thought he and Lisa were staying in Colorado for a few more days, but they actually decided to head to The Needles to camp, and were looking for us! They said they were heading up to Moab tomorrow, so we’ll probably hook up with them then.