Secret Point
Last week as part of my duties I had a day of roving in uniform. Basically I go out and answer visitor questions, but I can choose where I want to be hiking around. This week we had a group from the American Council of the Blind coming in for a visit. One of the rangers was coordinating their visit and wanted some touchables from out at a "secret" point in the canyon. It is so secret I refuse to tell you it's proper name! I hiked from Yaki Point out to that point, and found some pieces of Chert, pinecones, flowers, grasses, sage... all things that are touchable and sometime smell delicious! I took a break out at the point (it's about a mile and half hike out there on animal trails), where I met two women from Massachusettes. We had a great chat about the canyon, the history, geology, different points, cultural information and so on. It was a great morning! Afterwards I walked with them to the road, and then hike from the road back to Pipe Creek Vista, from there to the Visitor's Center, from the Visitor's Center to Headquarters, and then worked there until I hiked home. I'm now starting to think that perhaps that is why my knee has been bothering me.
Kaibab
Every couple of days as part of my duties I hike down into the canyon to Cedar Ridge, which is a mile and a half down South Kaibab Trail. Please note: the word is pronounced K-eye-bab, not kabob, or kaboom... Lately I've had this schedule a lot which I love. Actually I had it this morning. Unfortunately my knee has been acting up, popping, giving out, getting really tense, and being in a lot of pain. So hiking into the canyon doesn't last that long. This morning when I hiked in I came across a baby gopher snake! Absolutely adorable! The gopher snake is a constrictor, and has a black and white checkered pattern on it's back. This one was about a foot long, and only about a half inch wide. SO CUTE!!
Navajo
So the weekend before last (keep in mind my "weekends" occur midweek), my love and I went to check out Mesa Verde National Park. We left after work, and drove out to Navajo National Monument where we planned on camping the night. We pulled into the monument right around sunset, so the hills and lands were covered in a golden hue glow, beautifully backlight and just stunning. Making our way to the first-come first served camp ground we drove around to find about 20 campsites, only one of which was occupied. We picked our favorite one (number 7), backed the truck in, and made camp in the back of the car. We slept with the back hatch open, so I was a bit cold, as I was in a borrowed sleeping bag. The stars were phenomenal, and the moon was so bright that when it rose I woke up.
The next morning we explored some of the hiking trails (very short) at Navajo, checked out the ancient ruins. Okay, please keep in mind this is the first time I had ever seen cliff dwellings, it was early in the morning, and I didn't quite understand how things worked. We stood there looking out over the Betatakin, and at first I didn't even see it. When I did I was pretty sure they were big enough for small dolls, but nothing more. After laughing loudly, my love kindly explained to me they were big enough for people, and although it was far away these were large dwellings. After visiting Mesa Verde this made a lot more sense, but at the time I thought there was no way that was true. I'll have pictures up shortly (I've misplaced my USB cable to transfer the pictures to my computer so... hence the delay.) After leaving Navajo, we drove up to Mesa Verde.
Mesa Verde
At the gate of Mesa Verde, after showing our pass, we chatted with the ranger at the entrance. When we told her we were from Grand Canyon she became very excited to be chatting with fellow rangers. We talked a bit, before moving up to wait in line for traffic. They are doing a fair amount of repaving on the one road into the park, so there are long delays. Making our way in we found our campground, picked our spot, and then headed out to explore the park.
At the Visitor's Center we bought tickets for two of the guided tours; one into Balcony House and one into Cliff Palace. Balcony House is listed as the "Adventurous Cliff Dwelling Tour" while Cliff Place is "Mesa Verde's Largest Cliff Dwelling". Each of these tours is an hour. We went on the Balcony House tour that first afternoon. From the website: "This one-hour, ranger-guided tour involves climbing a 32 ft ladder, crawling through a 12 ft. long tunnel, and climbing up a 60 ft open rock face with two 10ft ladders to exit the site." IT WAS AWESOME!! We got to see some great areas, heard from teh ranger about the people who lived there, and best of all CLIMBED THINGS!! I like climbing things. Unfortunately the ranger wasn't always clear in his speech, and if there were other noises I couldn't always make out what he was saying. Thankfully, I had my own personal translator! Of course she liked to throw in her own renditions of what was being said so apparently the Pueboloan People loved to drink coffee, read the newspaper, and start fights with the other groups. Also, they thought white people were really cool, though the whites hadn't settled that aread when they lived there. I think maybe she was tweaking the story a bit...
The next morning we got up, broke camp (which really meant moved our backpacks from the front seats to the back, closed up the car and drove off), grabbed some breakfast burritos at the cafe, and headed out to Cliff Palace. On the drive back to camp the previous night I had a incredible pain shooting through my knee, and it had only gotten worse over the night and early morning. I limped along a bit, and we weren't sure if I should go on the hike, but I didn't want to miss out, so I "rangered up". On our way to the meeting place for the hike we met the Ranger leading the trip. We talked to her about Grand Canyon and she was excited that we were on the hike. We chatted a while and she was a really interesting person. Apparently she worked park service full time until she retired. Now she just works seasonally, but still at 62 climbs the ladders down into the cliff dwelling and back out 4 times a day!
From the website about Cliff Palace: "This one-hour, ranger-guided tour involves climbing five 8-10 ft ladders, on a 100 ft vertical climb. Total walking distance is about 1/4-mile, round-trip." It wasn't a difficult hike but it was a lot of fun. The ranger we had was an archeologist, and very knowledgable on the people who were there. Thankfully her voice carried quite well, so I didn't need a translator... though it wasn't half as entertaining as the stories I was getting the previous day! On the way out of the cliff dwelling we had to climb those ladders and shimmy through some rock crevices. People were going slowly, so we chatted with the ranger about their visitation, problems they face, her favorite parts of the job, their staff size. It was pretty cool! Since Mesa Verde is a cultural park, with many ancient ruins out in the woods there is no backcountry hiking.
After that hike my knee was pretty well beat, so we took it easy, visiting some of the ruins on the canyon edges, before heading out of the park and heading towards Durango. Arriving in Durango we found a small pub to grab a burger (mine was bison... yum), and then we walked around town. It's a cute little town and we had fun exploring the shops, the view, and the area. It was my first time to Colorado and we were nestled in the San Juan mountains. Unfortunately the card on my camera was full, so I didn't take many pictures. We debated staying in the national forest for another night, but after two and a half days without a shower we decided for the benefit of everyone around us, we'd spring for a room and clean up.
On our way to find a cheap place outside of town we passed by a grass field where there was a plane and a glider ready to take off. We watched them start down the runway, almost run out of room to take off, before the glider dropped the cord and somehow stopped before crashing. We didn't actually see it stop (we were driving) but we think it did... there were large storm clouds in the sky, and we could hear thunder in the distance so we were surprised they even attempted taking off at all!
We found a cheap place to stay, cleaned up, relaxed, and then headed back into the town area to find some dinner. Walking around we happened upon a street festival, with fresh made lemonade, limeade, tea, and there was a portable wood fire oven! So we ordered a veggie and a bruschetta thin crust pizzas. Absolutely delicious!! There was a live band playing, so we listened to them while we ate our pizza, drank our lemon/limeade, and enjoyed the beautiful evening. Afterwards we walked over to Cold Stone Creamery and had some ice cream. I couldn't finish even half of mine, but it was delicious! Heading back to the hotel we enjoyed the luxury of television, only to be reminded after 5 minutes that really there is nothing ever on and we weren't missing much.
The next morning we picked up some delicious breakfast burritos, grabbed some chai tea and coffee, and hit the road. It was a long drive back through the 4 corners region (note: the 4 corners monument is closed for construction...), but we made it home at a decent hour, did our laundry and crashed for the night.
Earl
As part of my weekly duties, I often ride the shuttle buses in the park, giving short programs, answering questions, providing information, and sometimes even doing some song and dance routines with the drivers. Okay, there a really only 2 bus drivers who dance with me, but still... a lot of fun! I was on one bus that is 75 minutes long. In one of the front seats sat a gentleman in his 70s by the name of Earl. He became my special helper. At one point I was talking to people in the back of the bus and I turned around only to find Earl with my ranger hat on his head, and his ball cap on my backpack. I ribbed him and told him to take it off, and he giggled. A bit later I was standing at the front of the bus, holding open the newspaper map showing everyone on the bus where we were, when out of the corner of my eye I see Earl lift his cane and hit my map right where we were. Everyone on the bus laughed. Earl's wife told me I should kick him off the bus, but she'd stay on with me. It was hilarious. Visitors are quite humorous at times!
Hiking
Not that anyone reading this is taking a trip out to the canyon soon (if you are, tell me!), but I thought you should know what we deal with around here. This past week a younger gentleman attempted to hike into the canyon, down to the river, and back out in one day. He did not survive. This is rather common, and was the first of two deaths we had in the past week. Even the seasoned rangers on staff who run miles every morning do not and would not attempt to hike down and back in a day. Every year we rescue 350 people from the canyon, with over 1000 medical emergencies as well on the rim and in the area. This place is incredibly dangerous. Today and through this weekend we have a high heat warning. Just being outside for the 4 hours I was this morning I am beat, and am thankful for the hour lunch break I get to relax and re-energize.
Flagstaff
Today is my Monday. I know it's really Thursday, but it's my Monday. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off, so on Tuesday we traveled down to Flagstaff, explored during the day, and then camped out in the national forest at night. Since we were trying to find a place to set up camp at 10:30pm, we didn't really know what was around us until the morning. We woke to find the San Francisco peaks rising high just beyond our site, beautiful lupines surrounding the car, and a gorgeous sunrise to wake us. It was cold at night, and with my brand-spanking new sleeping bag I was nice and toasty! Yesterday we meandered around town, enjoying the views, checking out the stores, picking up our groceries and driving back to the canyon. In Flagstaff we found the coolest houses! There was a tree house that was big enough to fit my entire room, bathroom, and half my kitchen in, an adobe house that was adorable that my girl wanted to buy and live in, and a house built out of 6 shipping containers stacked next to and on top of each other, with large windows and 3 rows of 6 solar panels on top powering the complex! A wonderful few days.
Food
For any of you who are not members of my family, you may not realize the fascination we have with food. Thankfully my enjoyment of food is only superceded by my girl's love of food! Whenever I talk to visitors I tell them where to go to eat as they are out on their journeys. They always laugh, but it is important to know! This weekend we had quite the festival of food. When we got into Flagstaff we stopped at Mountain Oasis for THE BEST gyros I've ever had. Phenomenal food! We walked around town for a bit, and stopped in at a place that advertised they served gelato. Being picky about our gelato we decided it didn't look that great, so instead we got two very delicious strawberry Italian sodas. Refreshing on a hot day!
After running errands, hanging around downtown, and going to check out Eclipse, we stopped at Pato which is Thai food. I had a bowl of Tom Ka soup (oh my goodness gracious... amazing), and a plate of spicy noodles accompanied by a tall glass of Thai Iced Tea. I could barely walk out of the restaurant, and I slept like a rock.
Wednesday morning we started with breakfast bagels at Biff's, with chai tea for me, then lunch at Beaver Street Brewery (Beaver Street Burger- 1/2 lb burger with garlic and spices, cheddar cheese for me, and great fries) and a round of pints of hard cider, then dinner at Hiro's Sushi. Though all the sushi looked amazing I was still stuffed to the gills with burger, so I did not participate. You see food is amazing... if you know where to go!
Alright, now that I've made you all ravenous... I'm signing off!
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