Ancestoral Puebloans and New Mexico

Pueblo houses under the lip of the mesa, Mesa Verde

South West America has been home to Native Americans for about 12,000 years, and we visited some places that had been home to their descendants. Mesa Verde is a ‘must-see’ if you are in the area with a great museum, visitor centre and lots of well-preserved cliff dwellings. These sites don’t date back 12,000 years – more like 1500 years ago.

We set off burning more fossil fuel at 8mpg to Mesa Verde National Park. We pre-booked tickets in Durango for a couple of ranger-led tours to see the remains of the buildings created by the Ancestral Puebloans.

On the way we called into the sorry monument erected at the “Four Corners” where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado states meet. It was wind-swept, tatty, and unkempt. Nevertheless we paid the money and I had my photo taken with a limb in each state.

Mesa Verde is the huge ‘green table’ of a mountain where the Ancestral Puebloans (previously called Anasazi) lived. These people eventually migrated away from the area and are ancestors of the Hopi. The Navajo are relative late-comers to the area and now form the majority of the population of the “Four Corners”.

Mesa Verde is huge and with speed restrictions it took a long time to get from one part to another. We hiked with rangers below the lip of the mesa and walked through the remains of houses and meeting areas being careful not to touch anything. To get between levels we had to climb on reconstructions of old ladders and I was glad we didn’t have to use the hand and toe holds that remained in the cliff edges from the original inhabitants. The rangers each had a unique delivery of their story including strong conservation messages, humour was doled out in spades. We stayed a couple of nights in the park campground and missed seeing the black bear that our camper-neighbour spotted.

Monument Valley

Remember when Forrest Gump stopped running? It was in Monument Valley.  I joined the people playing chicken in the middle of the road to take the iconic photo before we drove toward those massive mesas to check in at the campsite overlooking the valley. Here we met the dragon to end all camp dragons.

“Question?” was her opening line without bothering to looking up. “Answer” said Stuart (who always accuses me of antagonising these people). After we said we wanted to stay at one of her windblown, hot, dusty, hugely overpriced sites she replied with “no this, no that, no the-other, no nothings you get for your money”. OK, we’ll take it.  

We also took an over-priced jeep tour in the canyon between the mesas as RVs are not allowed on the scenic route. The jeep was open-sided and our guide tried hard to ensure she kept on the tail of the vehicle ahead so we had maximum dust exposure, she pointed out bits of rock we might find interesting ‘can you see the rabbit? How about the shoe?’

That night the RV shook against the wind and dust swirled around, but all credit to Stuart, he battled out with his tripod and little torch taking astro-shots of the mesas with the milky way lighting the background.

Goosenecks State Park - a camp for a night

Stuart 'off-piste" in Canyon de Chelly

Petrol in the Navajo reservations is cheaper than other places so Stuart ensured we had our fill before we set off eastwards. I fiddled continually with the radio pulling in Christian, C&W, Mexican and everything in-between, the RV doesn’t run to any USB input on the ‘entertainment system’.

A bit of a haul to Canyon de Chelly National Monument where we hiked into the canyon to see some more Puebloan ruins. It was another blue sky day and the campsite among the cottonwoods was a lovely place to spend the night. A Texan neighbour came over to add his 2 cents worth when he saw all our maps spread out and recommended we head toward Abiquiu. We plotted a zig-zag journey and opened an excellent Californian chardonnay to off-set the low-key dinner.

Travelling 500km on the wide well paved back roads was quick and painless before we pulled into a campsite on the shores of Lake Abiquiu ready to explore Georgia O’keefe country (famous SW America artist).

We were greeted by our host Ken, who made us very welcome and we settled into a well-priced site complete with all the usual – own firepit, hooded bbq, huge picnic table and bench with its own shelter. The downside was Ken pointing out the site was ‘alcohol-free’. We had to play ‘secret-squirrel’ with the booze.

Georgia O’keefe is big in this part of the world and we visited some of the places that she painted, the colours and light in this area near Santa Fe are an artists dream. At night I could hear coyotes yipping and howling and I saw one cross our path the next day, but he didn't hang around. 

Taos is the furthest east we will be travelling and then we turn and head back towards Las Vegas, but that will take several days driving, so Taos here we come (remnants of an R. Dean Taylor song are playing in my head "I'm serving time in Taos New Mexico".......).

Adios amigos.