Thursday, June 26, 2008

Day 5 - Thursday, June 26

Are we tired of looking at ruins yet? Not yet... but getting close ;o)
We spent the morning touring Mesa Verde with a Ranger led group. The group of native Americans who built the Mesa Verde pueblos, aren't referred to as the Anasazi anymore. They are called the Ancient Pueblo Indians. The Anasazi were the group of Indians who mysteriously disappeared. The Ancient Pueblo Indians left their homes in Mesa Verde because of drought, migrated to AZ, and intermarried with the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni tribes. It's more believable, but it doesn't make as good of a story.



We walked through the ruins, climbed ladders, climbed stairs, squeezed through narrow gaps in rocks, crawled through tunnels, and traversed narrow cliff trails. Good news, Jim didn't get stuck in the tunnel!






From Mesa Verde, we had a hard time trying to decide where to go next... We ended up going East to Durango, CO. We stopped at the old west downtown area, and visited the famous Durango Train Museum.




You might expect us to be in Durango right now, but we changed our minds and switched directions. We are spending the night in Moab, UT, hehehe! We are having a great time... who knows what we'll do tomorrow! But, we can tell you, it won't have anything to do with pueblo Indian ruins.

2 comments:

  1. Great photos, Joni! I love that you are just flying by the seat of your pants. What a fun vacation. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!!

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  2. Oh, I forgot to tell you. My nephews had their picture taken at the exact spot Chris and Cheryl did at four corners. I think that is really cool! Moab! WOW!!! Wish we had our 4-wheelers there and we would ride with you! Have a blast and yes, keep the pictures coming!!!

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