Nancy Cycles!

Nancy Cycles!
"You got to be careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there." ... Yogi Berra

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Spruce Tree House and Petroglyphs

Tuesday April 16 PART 2

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde, Spruce Tree House (name I believe because of the Spruce tree supports for the roof) is the best preserved.

Spruce Tree House
Kivas with a roof and ladder

Photos of Cliff Palace show some open Kivas. These show how they would have been for the people -- covered and a ladder in the center of the roof to get down to the floor.

After our visit and ogling at Spruce Tree, we found the trail -- the 3 mile, a bit challenging -- trail to the Petroglyphs.

Lynne fitting through the needlelike crevice as part of the trail

 

 

A (rest) stop to view the cliffs and mountains

 

Some more climbing
We reach the petroglyphs
We reach the petroglyphs
After the petroglyphs it was about a mile flat trail back to the starting point. Then the drive back to town. It was late afternoon by the time we reached our hotel and I quickly got into biking clothes before any previously mentioned "storm" hit, while Lynne picked up the Walking Tour guide and scouted out more of the town.

I rode up to the Fort Lewis College (that I never knew existed) in search of completing the triathlon route that Cynthia (from the visitor center) had told me about.

I did make it up the two mile gradual hill to campus and had a fine view of the San Juan Mountains on a day they called for high winds (meaning a lot of dust in the air), rain and probably snow).

 

The clouds never did bring any bad weather.

My success for riding the triathlon route ended there as I missed the turn to keep me on Rim Drive and ended up on steep switchbacks that brought me back to town. Although I was disappointed to not do the route, I was not willing to climb back up that two mile hill, so I meandered back to the old standby -- the Animas River Trail - for more riding before heading home.

Shower, dinner in the Saloon with live entertainment (cowboy strummin' his guitar and singing) ended our beautiful day.

 

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