I'm so used to Tate's hearing loss that I tend to forget he has a disability. He's such a regular kid!
Well, that's not quite true, either. I think he's an exceptional kid ;D
And he really doesn't need much in the way of accommodations.
Still, once in awhile there are privileges offered to him/us because of his disability. And as long as it's not taking anything from someone who needs it more, we'll gladly accept!
We went to visit my in-laws this weekend and spent a couple of days playing in the snow at Mt. Rainier National Park. Where we get in FREE, thanks to Tate's Access Pass. You can find the details here. Basically, he has a lifetime pass that gives him (and his family with him :D ) free access to National Parks, National Forests, etc. as well as discounts on camping, swimming, boat launches, guided tours, and more. We have a similar card for Washington State Parks (info here), though it must be renewed every five years.
For my Deaf/HoH buddies out there, your state may have something similar - check it out! Especially the National Parks - good at over 2000 sites.
WOOT!
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query national park pass. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query national park pass. Sort by date Show all posts
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Day 21
Friday, October 7, 2011
Oddly, the power was out for much of the night in our hotel. No idea why. Good thing we had Wyatt's battery-operated lantern to use in the bathroom. Oh well.
As is all too common along the coast, we woke to fog. Looked for the Trinidad Lighthouse, but couldn't find it in the mist. Fortunately, we were in and out of it - more "out" as the day went on. Here's a happy sight :D
Though our hearts were set on exploring the Redwoods today, we couldn't pass the beach without stopping for a little while.
Armed with maps and brochures and recommendations from the rangers, we headed...
... back into the mist.
Yes. For real. It looked like that.
First stop - Lady Bird Johnson grove / trail. Though we live among large evergreens ourselves, and are familiar with forests, the trees here are on an overwhelming scale. We were dwarfed. It's like being in a fairy tale. But better. Real.
Our whole family stood in this struck-by-lightning, burned out trunk and looked up, up, up...
I know everyone's computer screen will 'read' the colors differently, but the sun coming down, all green and yellow, through the branches - way better than stained glass.
Don't the trees look huge, next to Kerry and the boys?
Look again. And you still can't see the top.
Herds of Roosevelt Elk live in the park, and they're not hard to find. The cows, that is. We saw groups of them right along the road.
The bulls were more elusive. This guy kept his distance, and the telephoto can only do so much.
I love the turquoise blue of the water. That's my happy color.
Of course, we couldn't pass by Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, I mean, that's kitschy American folklore at its finest. (And who knew the bull was *ahem* anatomically correct?)
The Trees of Mystery definitely have a different flavor than the national park ;D
But still, the same sense of awe and wonder that such enormous things are living.
Of course, the main attraction for the boys was getting to ride another gondola, this time up through the trees - gorgeous.
For the most part, the boys got along well and were very good travelers. By the grace of God.
From the top, looking over the forest at the Pacific. Happy sigh :D
And looking the other way, (that would be east), back over the coast range.
And Gene, have you given up on me? Are you still hurt that we didn't stop in Superior? Well, c'mon... forgive me, brother. We were thinking of you in California :D
Crescent City... one last look at the coast before we headed inland.
We had reservations that night at the Oregon Caves Chateau. See, one of Kerry's dreams for the trip was to stay in a historic lodge in one of the national parks. Great idea, yah? Except that we kind of threw this trip together over the summer, and everything was already booked. You want to stay at the Old Faithful Inn (Yellowstone) or El Tovar (Grand Canyon) you make your reservation a year or two ahead. But, the Oregon Caves Chateau isn't quite as heavily traveled and still had space. We also wanted to tour the cave. Kind of gave the trip "bookends" - Lewis and Clark Caverns and now the Oregon Caves.
So at this point we had a choice. We could take our sweet time getting there, stay the night, and do the cave tour the next morning, or try to fit in the cave tour this same day. We made a quick call to check their schedule - last tour at 5pm. Let me tell you, on this day - Day 21 - Cow-Headed-For-The-Barn Syndrome was beginning to take hold, and as quickly as we could, we headed for the hills. The Siskiyous.
They (the infamous "they") will tell you that it's 17 miles from Cave Junction up to the cave and the chateau. But I'll tell you the truth. That was the longest 17 miles I've ever seen, and it's narrow and twisty. By the time we reached the top - at 4:58 - I think we were all feeling queasy, and Kerry practically threw us out of the van at the Visitors Center (he had to park a ways away) to go buy the tickets.
But it all turned out good. Their five o'clock tour only had three spaces left, but they were expecting another group momentarily. They asked us if we would be willing to split the family - sending three with the first group. Gunnar was feeling the worst (from the drive), so I volunteered to wait with him and sent Kerry, Wyatt and Tate off first, so none of them appear in the pictures.
Well, the other group never showed up, so our guide, Heather, gave Gunnar and me a private tour!
Though we all agreed that Lewis and Clark Caverns were more impressive (and fun!), you just can't beat a private tour. She gave Gunnar his own flashlight to carry, and we had way more time to look and listen. She pointed out things to us that the other group didn't get to see.
On a side note, you're not allowed to bring any personal belongings but a camera into the cave. No food, no water, not even a flashlight (they find too many batteries get dropped, along with everything else you can imagine.) Remember this for later...
Here we are, in the belly of the whale! Doesn't it look very like a rib cage?
These caves are unusual because they are marble, rather than the more commonly found limestone. They have a constant temperature of about 44F (or about 6.6C, for you metric folks), because that is the average temperature of the outside air. Just some factoids for you.
Gunnar can be a little squeamish about heights, and steep places, but did wonderfully :D
He also had all the time in the world to ask every question that came into his head. Fortunately, they were relevant ;D He's interested and curious, and he notices things.
Like this. What do you think that is? The 'base' (the dark object, not the rock) is about as big as my pinky fingernail.
That delicate structure is...
fungus growing on a rat dropping. Kind of interesting, though, yah?
This cave did not have the big, open chambers we saw at Lewis and Clark.
Up the long, steep stairs to....
Some of the rocks in the cave flouresce under black light... pretty cool!
At that point our guide offered to let us finish the tour by flashlight, if we liked. Gunnar very much liked :D So she pulled out another flashlight for me, switched off the power, and we continued the tour. What she didn't realize was that Kerry, Wyatt, and Tate's group, ahead of us, had not finished their tour, and were still in the cave. And their guide - her husband - did not have enough flashlights for everyone in their group! Sounds like everyone was a good sport about it, and they managed fine.
We saw (but did not photograph) bats. Obviously rats live in the cave. We also saw cave crickets and these. They look like spiders (eight legs) but have only one body part. They're harvestmen.
Gunnar asked a lot of good questions, like, "What do they eat?" Moths, we learned.
That prompted several funny stories about dumb questions other people have asked. She had a school group up a week or so before, and about half way through the tour one kid asked, "Are we going to go underground?" Are you kidding?
By the time we finished the tour it was raining outside and getting dark.
Good thing we were just in time for the seven o'clock dinner seating at the chateau. I should've taken pictures of the dining room. When they built the lodge they diverted part of the stream coming out of the cave right through the dining room. I'm not sure what the implications might be in the cold winter, but we enjoyed it! And the delicious and abundantly generous meal. Ahhhhh :D
Dy 21 Miles : 175 Total Miles : 4531
Oddly, the power was out for much of the night in our hotel. No idea why. Good thing we had Wyatt's battery-operated lantern to use in the bathroom. Oh well.
As is all too common along the coast, we woke to fog. Looked for the Trinidad Lighthouse, but couldn't find it in the mist. Fortunately, we were in and out of it - more "out" as the day went on. Here's a happy sight :D
Though our hearts were set on exploring the Redwoods today, we couldn't pass the beach without stopping for a little while.
Armed with maps and brochures and recommendations from the rangers, we headed...
... back into the mist.
Yes. For real. It looked like that.
First stop - Lady Bird Johnson grove / trail. Though we live among large evergreens ourselves, and are familiar with forests, the trees here are on an overwhelming scale. We were dwarfed. It's like being in a fairy tale. But better. Real.
Our whole family stood in this struck-by-lightning, burned out trunk and looked up, up, up...
at a living tree.
I know everyone's computer screen will 'read' the colors differently, but the sun coming down, all green and yellow, through the branches - way better than stained glass.
Don't the trees look huge, next to Kerry and the boys?
Look again. And you still can't see the top.
Herds of Roosevelt Elk live in the park, and they're not hard to find. The cows, that is. We saw groups of them right along the road.
The bulls were more elusive. This guy kept his distance, and the telephoto can only do so much.
I love the turquoise blue of the water. That's my happy color.
Of course, we couldn't pass by Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, I mean, that's kitschy American folklore at its finest. (And who knew the bull was *ahem* anatomically correct?)
The Trees of Mystery definitely have a different flavor than the national park ;D
But still, the same sense of awe and wonder that such enormous things are living.
Of course, the main attraction for the boys was getting to ride another gondola, this time up through the trees - gorgeous.
For the most part, the boys got along well and were very good travelers. By the grace of God.
From the top, looking over the forest at the Pacific. Happy sigh :D
And looking the other way, (that would be east), back over the coast range.
Can. Not. Resist. The. Dimple.
And Gene, have you given up on me? Are you still hurt that we didn't stop in Superior? Well, c'mon... forgive me, brother. We were thinking of you in California :D
Crescent City... one last look at the coast before we headed inland.
We had reservations that night at the Oregon Caves Chateau. See, one of Kerry's dreams for the trip was to stay in a historic lodge in one of the national parks. Great idea, yah? Except that we kind of threw this trip together over the summer, and everything was already booked. You want to stay at the Old Faithful Inn (Yellowstone) or El Tovar (Grand Canyon) you make your reservation a year or two ahead. But, the Oregon Caves Chateau isn't quite as heavily traveled and still had space. We also wanted to tour the cave. Kind of gave the trip "bookends" - Lewis and Clark Caverns and now the Oregon Caves.
So at this point we had a choice. We could take our sweet time getting there, stay the night, and do the cave tour the next morning, or try to fit in the cave tour this same day. We made a quick call to check their schedule - last tour at 5pm. Let me tell you, on this day - Day 21 - Cow-Headed-For-The-Barn Syndrome was beginning to take hold, and as quickly as we could, we headed for the hills. The Siskiyous.
They (the infamous "they") will tell you that it's 17 miles from Cave Junction up to the cave and the chateau. But I'll tell you the truth. That was the longest 17 miles I've ever seen, and it's narrow and twisty. By the time we reached the top - at 4:58 - I think we were all feeling queasy, and Kerry practically threw us out of the van at the Visitors Center (he had to park a ways away) to go buy the tickets.
But it all turned out good. Their five o'clock tour only had three spaces left, but they were expecting another group momentarily. They asked us if we would be willing to split the family - sending three with the first group. Gunnar was feeling the worst (from the drive), so I volunteered to wait with him and sent Kerry, Wyatt and Tate off first, so none of them appear in the pictures.
Well, the other group never showed up, so our guide, Heather, gave Gunnar and me a private tour!
Though we all agreed that Lewis and Clark Caverns were more impressive (and fun!), you just can't beat a private tour. She gave Gunnar his own flashlight to carry, and we had way more time to look and listen. She pointed out things to us that the other group didn't get to see.
On a side note, you're not allowed to bring any personal belongings but a camera into the cave. No food, no water, not even a flashlight (they find too many batteries get dropped, along with everything else you can imagine.) Remember this for later...
Here we are, in the belly of the whale! Doesn't it look very like a rib cage?
These caves are unusual because they are marble, rather than the more commonly found limestone. They have a constant temperature of about 44F (or about 6.6C, for you metric folks), because that is the average temperature of the outside air. Just some factoids for you.
Gunnar can be a little squeamish about heights, and steep places, but did wonderfully :D
He also had all the time in the world to ask every question that came into his head. Fortunately, they were relevant ;D He's interested and curious, and he notices things.
Like this. What do you think that is? The 'base' (the dark object, not the rock) is about as big as my pinky fingernail.
That delicate structure is...
fungus growing on a rat dropping. Kind of interesting, though, yah?
This cave did not have the big, open chambers we saw at Lewis and Clark.
Up the long, steep stairs to....
... Paradise Lost.
Some of the rocks in the cave flouresce under black light... pretty cool!
At that point our guide offered to let us finish the tour by flashlight, if we liked. Gunnar very much liked :D So she pulled out another flashlight for me, switched off the power, and we continued the tour. What she didn't realize was that Kerry, Wyatt, and Tate's group, ahead of us, had not finished their tour, and were still in the cave. And their guide - her husband - did not have enough flashlights for everyone in their group! Sounds like everyone was a good sport about it, and they managed fine.
We saw (but did not photograph) bats. Obviously rats live in the cave. We also saw cave crickets and these. They look like spiders (eight legs) but have only one body part. They're harvestmen.
Gunnar asked a lot of good questions, like, "What do they eat?" Moths, we learned.
That prompted several funny stories about dumb questions other people have asked. She had a school group up a week or so before, and about half way through the tour one kid asked, "Are we going to go underground?" Are you kidding?
By the time we finished the tour it was raining outside and getting dark.
Good thing we were just in time for the seven o'clock dinner seating at the chateau. I should've taken pictures of the dining room. When they built the lodge they diverted part of the stream coming out of the cave right through the dining room. I'm not sure what the implications might be in the cold winter, but we enjoyed it! And the delicious and abundantly generous meal. Ahhhhh :D
Dy 21 Miles : 175 Total Miles : 4531
Friday, August 19, 2011
Clearly Something Is Lacking...
* ... in my planning and organizational skills. I came to this conclusion as I found myself, for the third morning in a row, at our local grocery store, where my boys are on a first-name basis with the
That may or may not happen.
Because my SIL - who was a flight attendant for years - managed not only to miss getting on her plane this morning, but then turned around and went home rather than trying for a later flight. She called Kerry and said, "I'm going to be a little late. No big deal." In this case late apparently means tomorrow. Probably. Soap operas don't have this much drama.
* Well at any rate I have a tidy kitchen. Jack (the goldfish) has a sparkling clean bowl. All the
* And can I just pose a random question? Why are manufacturers compelled to write "Unbreakable!" on their products? Don't they realize that boys view that as a challenge?
* In other news, the Liquid Fence appears to be working. My sad, pathetic hydrangea actually has leaves on it! Who knew?
* The boys are thrilled because their best friends just came home from two weeks' vacation. Not only do they have their friends back to play with, but we've been caring for their pets and they're being "paid' with Wii time. GIDDY doesn't quite cover it.
* Unfortunately they don't realize how much busier they're about to become. We're starting to ease into school early this year. We're 'paying it forward', so to speak. Banking some schoolwork now so we don't have to do any on our vacation.
* Yes, we're planning a vacation, which I can mention at least in vague terms since - cue the Hallelujah Chorus - we have HOUSE-SITTERS! Can I just tell you I am thrilled about that?! We have great neighbors who will keep an eye on things and look after our pets, but I really like having someone in the house, coming and going, picking up the mail, etc.
* The vacation? Well, I'll tell you more afterward. This is the first road-trip we've ever taken with the boybarians and I'm hoping our van and our sanity can go the distance. I may possibly have researched this trip more than I researched having our first child, so we're just a little excited about it. Going to give Tate's National Park Access Pass a workout, going to spend a lot of nights in rustic cabins, and looking forward to meeting a couple of bloggy friends along the way :D
* In the mean time we'll be plugging away at our school work, squeezing all the fun we can out of the last few days of summer (vacation), and marrying off my brother.
You?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Day 8
Saturday, September 24, 2011
I apologize in advance. Like yesterday, this post is a bit picture-heavy. I had in mind to do a daily Top 10. Which became 20. And today is 33. But, honestly, yesterday and today felt like the most condensed days of the trip - like we packed the most in. Other things may have been bigger, like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but we had multiple days at those places, so I can spread it out a bit.
And besides, if you're not interested, just pass on by ;D
Generally, none of us are fans of spending a lot of time driving. I tend to feel that it's lost time. Wasted time. But God graciously gave us all a large measure of tolerance for the hours on the road. It helped that everything was so very different than home, that the weather was nearly always fabulous, and that we were all having so much fun :D
And today's jaunt was relatively short, by comparison, from Moab south-east into Colorado to...
Mesa Verde was one of my Absolute Must See's. I vividly remember the fascination and wonder I felt when we were here - I think - in 1976. Climbing in and out of the cliff dwellings thrilled me. I just knew the boys would love it.
And I loved the fall colors as we climbed up onto the mesa. Another gloriously beautiful day - truly an answer to prayer. In fact, for the first two weeks of the trip, everywhere we went locals would tell us that summer was hanging on longer than usual this year. Of course, that meant it was a bit hotter than we might have liked, but better that than rain!
There are several cliff dwellings that anyone can walk to, but the truly spectacular ones are only accessible via ranger-led tours. Again, coming off-season was a real bonus. Even though this day was National Public Lands Day, and thus free entry into National Parks, Monuments, and Historical Sites for everyone - we didn't have crowds to contend with, for which I was very thankful. During peak times you can only buy tickets for one tour per day, but we were able to do two.
Kerry wanted to stop by the museum first, as much for the architecture as the contents. But once we got there, we decided to save the most-likely-air-conditioned museum for later in the day...
... and headed down the trail to Spruce House, one of the cliff dwellings open to everyone. The boys looked on in amazement at these 800-900 year-old homes.
This was the only place we saw a kiva - a ceremonial room - that we could go into.
This one is likely a reconstruction, but on one tour our guide pointed out that the kind of wood they used (juniper?) has some kind of resin in it that termites won't touch, so some of the wood in the dwellings is truly hundreds of years old (dendrochronology-dated) and not decomposing. Amazing.
We met Ranger Paula above the well-known Cliff Palace for our first tour. You should hear the warnings they give you. The tours are strenuous. Not long, but steep. And they will tell you exactly how many vertical feet you will descend, and ascend, and exactly how many steps and ladders you will climb. Alrighty then!
To get to the Cliff Palace you actually have to climb down below it to get around the cliff, and then climb back up to it. At this point we were below the vantage point from the pic above, and a bit to the left. The ranger tucked as many of us back into the shade as possible while she gave her first talk.
In fact, I'm sure it was the grace of God that our tours were scheduled as they were, with ample shade for us heat-wimps ;D Later in the day Cliff Palace gets direct sunlight and heats up like an oven.
Below, you can see the tour group following us, where we had just been, and above them, where our tour began. We descended directly behind that lookout point, had to come around and below the large cliff face, and then up a ladder to reach the Cliff Palace. No problem for our boys, but I wouldn't try it with little kids.
Here's a kiva with the roof off. I'm sure there is something symbolic about the room being circular. I think the design is even more interesting, in relation to the fire. There are ventilation holes around the circle to bring in fresh air, and the largest has a large thin rock set up as a deflector, so the wind wouldn't blow out the fire.
Climbing up and out was more of an adventure. Can you see the steps cut into the rock? It's a narrow, twisty route - lots of fun! If you look very closely to the right of the boys you might be able to see some hand and toe holds cut into the rock and used by the original inhabitants.
And, yet another ladder. Definitely not part of the original design ;D
Whew! That was awesome, but the best is yet to come. But first, a breather...
I saved Balcony House for last because I knew the boys would really, really dig it. And our guide, Ranger Jo, absolutely was the icing on the cake. She was quite a character, and had a ton of stories about a local Indian friend of hers called Grandpa Eugene. You can sure tell when somebody loves their job - makes all the difference in the world.
I don't know if all boys are as competitive as mine, but it's a constant battle to get them not to rush to be first, or in front, etc. But on tours like this Tate needs to be in front to hear the ranger. I'm all about teaching him to advocate for himself respectfully. At Mesa Verde we arrived early for our tours, introduced ourselves to the rangers, and explained Tate's hearing loss and what would be helpful. While everyone was understanding, Ranger Jo took it and ran with it. She made all three boys her special Assistant Rangers and kept Tate right at her side the whole time, making sure he could see her face the whole time, and pointing things out to him, as well as everyone else. She was awesome.
Like Cliff Palace, the approach to Balcony House involved descending below, to climb into the site. That's Ranger Jo with Wyatt, Tate, and Gunnar right on her heels - the first ones up the 32 foot tall, double ladder.
Approaches to Balcony House were narrow, for good reason - defense. If you enemy can only approach one at a time, he can't easily overwhelm you.
Big ladder, small passage, small ladder.... and into the site ;D
Gunnar, peeking through a window, from one side of Balcony House to the other.
If I remember right there were different areas for different clans.
Getting out, via the original entrance/exit, involves this narrow tunnel. A lot of hands have been used for balance I think - see the dark smudges?
Of course, the gate was added by the Park Service to keep out trespassers and vandals, but the narrow hole is original. Again, your enemy can't swarm in as a horde, but must come through one by one. Pretty smart. And a tight squeeze at that. Many of the people on the tour had to push their backpacks ahead of them.
The boys loved this part. Even Gunnar, who can be a bit squeamish about heights, did really well. This ladder is vertical, and the steps cut into the rock above it are nearly so.
That's Wyatt, reaching the top, with Tate right on his heels.
Yes, it really is as steep as it looks, but the chain was quite secure. Still, if you're not a fan of heights, I'd give this one a pass. And definitely not for little kids.
I was glad to see Gunnar, with Kerry and his brothers gone ahead of him, not letting fear get the best of him. He just kept plugging. I had talked with him ahead about just moving one thing at a time. If you're scared, don't stop, but just move one hand, then one foot, then the other hand, etc. Though all the ladders and footholds were very secure, this was all nearly completely vertical and felt very exposed. "The fun kind of scary," in my family :D
Yes, it's a long, long way down!
Bringing up the rear - and making sure no one was left behind - came Ranger Jo. We waited to give her a special thank you :D
There was much, much more of the park to explore, but we did most of it from view-points like this one. The heat (in the 80's) and the elevation (over 7000') really make a difference to folks like us that live in cool climates and at sea level! I mean, we did fine. We brought plenty of water everywhere we went and were quite capable of doing the hikes and exploring we wanted to do, we just really noticed ourselves feeling the fatigue more than we would at home.
You can see it on the boys' faces here. Well, that and the sun was in their eyes ;D But they're definitely reaching their saturation point for the day!
The boys loved the telescopes... especially the free ones :D Gunnar could see across the canyon to Cliff Palace, with other tour groups being escorted through. Had we gone at this time of day we would have been baking.
Is someone drooping, just a little? Good thing we parked so close ;D
Heading back down to Cortez, to our hotel, we got a bonus... right on the side of the road. I had wondered if we'd see any snakes and hoped - if we did - they wouldn't be anywhere near the boys, so this was perfect. A nice close look from the safety of the van! I can see that it's a rattlesnake, but have no idea what specific kind. Anyone? Uncle Google says it's a Prairie (Western) Rattlesnake.
As much as possible we tried to find unique places to eat - diners, mom and pop places - so as cruised through Cortez we kept our eyes open. Jack and Janelle's Country Kitchen did not disappoint - good food and lots of it. Our hotel, on the other hand, was underwhelming. But again, at least it was clean, so I'll roll with it.
Day 8 Miles : 195 Total : 2165
I apologize in advance. Like yesterday, this post is a bit picture-heavy. I had in mind to do a daily Top 10. Which became 20. And today is 33. But, honestly, yesterday and today felt like the most condensed days of the trip - like we packed the most in. Other things may have been bigger, like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but we had multiple days at those places, so I can spread it out a bit.
And besides, if you're not interested, just pass on by ;D
Generally, none of us are fans of spending a lot of time driving. I tend to feel that it's lost time. Wasted time. But God graciously gave us all a large measure of tolerance for the hours on the road. It helped that everything was so very different than home, that the weather was nearly always fabulous, and that we were all having so much fun :D
And today's jaunt was relatively short, by comparison, from Moab south-east into Colorado to...
Mesa Verde was one of my Absolute Must See's. I vividly remember the fascination and wonder I felt when we were here - I think - in 1976. Climbing in and out of the cliff dwellings thrilled me. I just knew the boys would love it.
And I loved the fall colors as we climbed up onto the mesa. Another gloriously beautiful day - truly an answer to prayer. In fact, for the first two weeks of the trip, everywhere we went locals would tell us that summer was hanging on longer than usual this year. Of course, that meant it was a bit hotter than we might have liked, but better that than rain!
There are several cliff dwellings that anyone can walk to, but the truly spectacular ones are only accessible via ranger-led tours. Again, coming off-season was a real bonus. Even though this day was National Public Lands Day, and thus free entry into National Parks, Monuments, and Historical Sites for everyone - we didn't have crowds to contend with, for which I was very thankful. During peak times you can only buy tickets for one tour per day, but we were able to do two.
Kerry wanted to stop by the museum first, as much for the architecture as the contents. But once we got there, we decided to save the most-likely-air-conditioned museum for later in the day...
... and headed down the trail to Spruce House, one of the cliff dwellings open to everyone. The boys looked on in amazement at these 800-900 year-old homes.
This was the only place we saw a kiva - a ceremonial room - that we could go into.
This one is likely a reconstruction, but on one tour our guide pointed out that the kind of wood they used (juniper?) has some kind of resin in it that termites won't touch, so some of the wood in the dwellings is truly hundreds of years old (dendrochronology-dated) and not decomposing. Amazing.
We met Ranger Paula above the well-known Cliff Palace for our first tour. You should hear the warnings they give you. The tours are strenuous. Not long, but steep. And they will tell you exactly how many vertical feet you will descend, and ascend, and exactly how many steps and ladders you will climb. Alrighty then!
To get to the Cliff Palace you actually have to climb down below it to get around the cliff, and then climb back up to it. At this point we were below the vantage point from the pic above, and a bit to the left. The ranger tucked as many of us back into the shade as possible while she gave her first talk.
Below, you can see the tour group following us, where we had just been, and above them, where our tour began. We descended directly behind that lookout point, had to come around and below the large cliff face, and then up a ladder to reach the Cliff Palace. No problem for our boys, but I wouldn't try it with little kids.
Here's a kiva with the roof off. I'm sure there is something symbolic about the room being circular. I think the design is even more interesting, in relation to the fire. There are ventilation holes around the circle to bring in fresh air, and the largest has a large thin rock set up as a deflector, so the wind wouldn't blow out the fire.
Climbing up and out was more of an adventure. Can you see the steps cut into the rock? It's a narrow, twisty route - lots of fun! If you look very closely to the right of the boys you might be able to see some hand and toe holds cut into the rock and used by the original inhabitants.
And, yet another ladder. Definitely not part of the original design ;D
Whew! That was awesome, but the best is yet to come. But first, a breather...
Wyatt
Gunnar
Tate
I saved Balcony House for last because I knew the boys would really, really dig it. And our guide, Ranger Jo, absolutely was the icing on the cake. She was quite a character, and had a ton of stories about a local Indian friend of hers called Grandpa Eugene. You can sure tell when somebody loves their job - makes all the difference in the world.
I don't know if all boys are as competitive as mine, but it's a constant battle to get them not to rush to be first, or in front, etc. But on tours like this Tate needs to be in front to hear the ranger. I'm all about teaching him to advocate for himself respectfully. At Mesa Verde we arrived early for our tours, introduced ourselves to the rangers, and explained Tate's hearing loss and what would be helpful. While everyone was understanding, Ranger Jo took it and ran with it. She made all three boys her special Assistant Rangers and kept Tate right at her side the whole time, making sure he could see her face the whole time, and pointing things out to him, as well as everyone else. She was awesome.
Like Cliff Palace, the approach to Balcony House involved descending below, to climb into the site. That's Ranger Jo with Wyatt, Tate, and Gunnar right on her heels - the first ones up the 32 foot tall, double ladder.
Approaches to Balcony House were narrow, for good reason - defense. If you enemy can only approach one at a time, he can't easily overwhelm you.
Big ladder, small passage, small ladder.... and into the site ;D
Gunnar, peeking through a window, from one side of Balcony House to the other.
If I remember right there were different areas for different clans.
Getting out, via the original entrance/exit, involves this narrow tunnel. A lot of hands have been used for balance I think - see the dark smudges?
Of course, the gate was added by the Park Service to keep out trespassers and vandals, but the narrow hole is original. Again, your enemy can't swarm in as a horde, but must come through one by one. Pretty smart. And a tight squeeze at that. Many of the people on the tour had to push their backpacks ahead of them.
The boys loved this part. Even Gunnar, who can be a bit squeamish about heights, did really well. This ladder is vertical, and the steps cut into the rock above it are nearly so.
That's Wyatt, reaching the top, with Tate right on his heels.
Yes, it really is as steep as it looks, but the chain was quite secure. Still, if you're not a fan of heights, I'd give this one a pass. And definitely not for little kids.
I was glad to see Gunnar, with Kerry and his brothers gone ahead of him, not letting fear get the best of him. He just kept plugging. I had talked with him ahead about just moving one thing at a time. If you're scared, don't stop, but just move one hand, then one foot, then the other hand, etc. Though all the ladders and footholds were very secure, this was all nearly completely vertical and felt very exposed. "The fun kind of scary," in my family :D
Yes, it's a long, long way down!
Bringing up the rear - and making sure no one was left behind - came Ranger Jo. We waited to give her a special thank you :D
There was much, much more of the park to explore, but we did most of it from view-points like this one. The heat (in the 80's) and the elevation (over 7000') really make a difference to folks like us that live in cool climates and at sea level! I mean, we did fine. We brought plenty of water everywhere we went and were quite capable of doing the hikes and exploring we wanted to do, we just really noticed ourselves feeling the fatigue more than we would at home.
You can see it on the boys' faces here. Well, that and the sun was in their eyes ;D But they're definitely reaching their saturation point for the day!
The boys loved the telescopes... especially the free ones :D Gunnar could see across the canyon to Cliff Palace, with other tour groups being escorted through. Had we gone at this time of day we would have been baking.
Is someone drooping, just a little? Good thing we parked so close ;D
Heading back down to Cortez, to our hotel, we got a bonus... right on the side of the road. I had wondered if we'd see any snakes and hoped - if we did - they wouldn't be anywhere near the boys, so this was perfect. A nice close look from the safety of the van! I can see that it's a rattlesnake, but have no idea what specific kind. Anyone? Uncle Google says it's a Prairie (Western) Rattlesnake.
As much as possible we tried to find unique places to eat - diners, mom and pop places - so as cruised through Cortez we kept our eyes open. Jack and Janelle's Country Kitchen did not disappoint - good food and lots of it. Our hotel, on the other hand, was underwhelming. But again, at least it was clean, so I'll roll with it.
Day 8 Miles : 195 Total : 2165
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