10/31: Mesa Verde pueblos and Ouray, Colorado - pics galore

Today is a Saturday and it's also Halloween. We went for a long drive with Vicki and Morris to a few interesting places. We got a great tour of the native Hopi pueblo history at Mesa Verde National Park. This was awesome! This was the last day of the park season and we were the very last group to get a tour of the balcony house pueblo. For me, it was a bit scary climbing the 30 and two 15 foot long ladders. Our Park Service Ranger guide did a great job explaining the details of Hopi life in the pueblo. She also got us all safely back to the museum. It was a fascinating experience. We watched a half hour movie presentation of the pueblos and history of their development. We also enjoyed all the exhibits in the museum. I especially enjoyed the dioramas. We left near closing time of 5 pm. I left wondering what it would be like to live back in those days. I think that it might be hard work, but life would also have more purpose and meaning. Even though the wind was blowing something fierce, Margi got us off the mesa safely. I now understand how the wind and sand work to carve out the rock into their various shapes. We had dinner at the Hunan Chinese Restaurant in Cortez, Colorado. We were soon driving through the night up another winding mountain road. I'm really only assuming that it was mountainous terrain as we saw nothing but the road after the sun had set. We pulled into Ouray, Colorado at about 11 pm and collapsed in our beds at the Wiesbaden hotel. .

Oh yeah... we decided that we should rename RV Moki. Her new name is Moki Ruby Maki due to the fact that she is a female. No offence intended to grandpa Doug.

Margi & Viki outside Mesa Verde park entrance

Statue of a Hopi climbing outside Mesa Verde entrance.

Morris with a Hopi friend.

Entrance to Mesa Verde National Park.

View of  the area surrounding Mesa Verde.

Another view of the happy hunting grounds.

There are at least five mule deer in this shot.

Stalking the wiley muley,

Appears that someone had lost their glasses.

One of the pueblo ruins

Closer shot of a pueblo.

View of a valley near the pueblos.

30 foot ladder we had to climb as part of the tour.

Our park ranger tour guide.

Me outside a pueblo.

Close up of a kiva.

Ghost wall.

Viki coming out of the crawl space.

Morris doing the crawl.

I'm gonna crawl!

These folks all did the crawl.

Even this fine specimen.