Today was...
Jun. 8th, 2010 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wispfoxAll sorts of Ancient Puebloan ruins day! ("Anasazi" is, as I recall, effectively "enemy's ancestors" in Navajo, so I try to not use it. That is, however, the common term used for the ancestors of the Pueblo Native Americans)
First, some randomness!
I cannot find a book I'd purchased for myself about how to manage to identify common trees in an hour! This is sad, in part because I wonder what else I misplaced, and where. It could be somewhere in my trunk, but this is unlikely.
I covet the Ken Burns: The National Parks: America's Best Idea DVD. Oh, the coveting!
I managed to misplace my hotel room today (first time this trip!). Thankfully, my receipt had their address on it; it was not where I thought it was. (which is good, since it clearly _wasn't_ where I thought it was!)
I also misplaced my hotel room key, last night. Got a replacement this morning (it's a keycard anyway), but sheesh. I apparently am not fond enough of this place. ;)
Was going to try to do a Archaeological Day Tour on Thursday, but they are all booked up with a single huge group. And I can't reasonably make it to Cortez, CO from Farmington, NM by 8:30am tomorrow morning to do it tomorrow. Ah, well!
Four Corners National Monument is closed until approximately July! Ah, but it is open on weekends! Clearly I should go there after I go to Cortez and Durango. :)
Started my day by going to Salmon Ruins, which includes a tour of the people who lived on the Ruins after they were abandoned, as well as the ruins themselves.
After this, I went to Aztec, and visited their visitor's center and the Aztec Ruins National Monument. They were initially mistaken for Aztec ruins, but are actually ancestral Puebloans. (I am, BTW, collecting lots of cancellations for my national park passport book, now that it lives in my pocket! Still sad I missed carlsbad's cancellation stamp)
It's kind of nuts; the path has you walk _through_ the ruins inside buildings and stuff. Some of the doorways were chest height for me, and I'm not terribly tall (5'4''), so a tall person might not want to take the tour! They also have you go through a completely reconstructed kiva. I asked, and apparently the ruins were flooded badly after they were excavated, due to nearby farmer irrigation methods. So it wasn't as invasive as it appeared to be to reconstruct it. (He noted that pictures of it looked like basically a mud pit, after the flooding for years) But, as the ranger noted, they'd not do that kind of thing today. So mixed feelings about being able to walk through the village and the reconstructed kiva. Very cool, but... very invasive to have made those changes, and to be walking through it. (You'll note that I did in fact walk through it, so my invasiveness reaction did not overcome my curiosity, in large part because it was sanctioned and they _do_ try to minimize the effects of tourists)
I will not be going to Chaco Canyon or Ute Mountain, due to being in a rental car. (both require a fair bit of non-paved roadness, and I get the impression that a bunch of that is not even gravel roads) Chaco is apparently very impressive, and likely the source location for many of the sites around it. I've had almost as many suggestions for it as I have for Canyon De Chelly (pronounced "Shay")!
Pictures of Salmon Ruins and pictures of Aztec Ruins National Monument.
First, some randomness!
I cannot find a book I'd purchased for myself about how to manage to identify common trees in an hour! This is sad, in part because I wonder what else I misplaced, and where. It could be somewhere in my trunk, but this is unlikely.
I covet the Ken Burns: The National Parks: America's Best Idea DVD. Oh, the coveting!
I managed to misplace my hotel room today (first time this trip!). Thankfully, my receipt had their address on it; it was not where I thought it was. (which is good, since it clearly _wasn't_ where I thought it was!)
I also misplaced my hotel room key, last night. Got a replacement this morning (it's a keycard anyway), but sheesh. I apparently am not fond enough of this place. ;)
Was going to try to do a Archaeological Day Tour on Thursday, but they are all booked up with a single huge group. And I can't reasonably make it to Cortez, CO from Farmington, NM by 8:30am tomorrow morning to do it tomorrow. Ah, well!
Four Corners National Monument is closed until approximately July! Ah, but it is open on weekends! Clearly I should go there after I go to Cortez and Durango. :)
Started my day by going to Salmon Ruins, which includes a tour of the people who lived on the Ruins after they were abandoned, as well as the ruins themselves.
After this, I went to Aztec, and visited their visitor's center and the Aztec Ruins National Monument. They were initially mistaken for Aztec ruins, but are actually ancestral Puebloans. (I am, BTW, collecting lots of cancellations for my national park passport book, now that it lives in my pocket! Still sad I missed carlsbad's cancellation stamp)
It's kind of nuts; the path has you walk _through_ the ruins inside buildings and stuff. Some of the doorways were chest height for me, and I'm not terribly tall (5'4''), so a tall person might not want to take the tour! They also have you go through a completely reconstructed kiva. I asked, and apparently the ruins were flooded badly after they were excavated, due to nearby farmer irrigation methods. So it wasn't as invasive as it appeared to be to reconstruct it. (He noted that pictures of it looked like basically a mud pit, after the flooding for years) But, as the ranger noted, they'd not do that kind of thing today. So mixed feelings about being able to walk through the village and the reconstructed kiva. Very cool, but... very invasive to have made those changes, and to be walking through it. (You'll note that I did in fact walk through it, so my invasiveness reaction did not overcome my curiosity, in large part because it was sanctioned and they _do_ try to minimize the effects of tourists)
I will not be going to Chaco Canyon or Ute Mountain, due to being in a rental car. (both require a fair bit of non-paved roadness, and I get the impression that a bunch of that is not even gravel roads) Chaco is apparently very impressive, and likely the source location for many of the sites around it. I've had almost as many suggestions for it as I have for Canyon De Chelly (pronounced "Shay")!
Pictures of Salmon Ruins and pictures of Aztec Ruins National Monument.
