Rocks to me are akin to bones, bones of the earth, it’s skeletal frame that has been pressed and extruded and deposited. Rocks in one sense hold the meaning of life, because life has evolved in a medium of rocks dissolved, eroded, polished, blown, washed away, wore bare by human feet or by their chips [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Ancestral Puebloan Ruins’
The Photographer’s I: Rocks
Posted in Idaho, Landscapes, Natural History, New Mexico, Oregon, Parks & Monuments, Photographic Criticism, Utah, Western Photography, tagged Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, geology western states, Hovenweep, petroglyphs, Photo Essay, Port Orford OR on April 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Far View
Posted in Colorado, Four Corners, Parks & Monuments, Western Photography, Western Travel Writing, tagged Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, Ancestral Puebloans, Cliff Palace, Far View, Mesa Verde NP, SW Anthropology on December 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In 1906 Congress established Mesa Verde National Park, the first to expand the parks concept beyond exclusively preserving scenic natural wonders (like Yellowstone), to include the “works of man.” In 1888 the Wetherills, a local ranching family, stumbled upon magnificent and mysterious cliff dwellings perched in caves up Mesa Verde’s canyon walls. Throughout the 1890s [...]
Winter’s Closing In
Posted in Colorado, Four Corners, Parks & Monuments, Western Travel Writing, tagged Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde NP, Spruce Tree House on October 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This afternoon it is snowing here in Albuquerque. It’s at least an inch deep in my backyard. Just after 3:00 pm, it’s 27°. This is not standard end-of-October weather. Today’s average temperature is 65°. Yesterday, I sat in front of our first-of-the-season fire, reading up on Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado, where we’d taken a [...]
Where Have All the Aspens Gone?
Posted in Colorado, Environment, Four Corners, Natural History, Parks & Monuments, Western Photography, Western Travel Writing, tagged Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, Climate Change, Copenhagen Climate Meeting, Mesa Verde NP, Politics on October 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Last week we visited Mesa Verde in Southwestern Colorado. The homeplace to thousands of Ancestral Puebloans for 600 years, the mesatop stone cities and cliff palaces carved into canyon cliff walls were abandoned over the course of the final quarter of the 13th century. Why did they leave? A question with too many answers—extended drought, [...]
Place by Flowing Waters: The Mother Pueblo at Aztec
Posted in Four Corners, New Mexico, Parks & Monuments, Western Travel Writing, tagged Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, Ancestral Puebloans, Aztec Ruins, great kiva on October 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I think there is nothing more distinctly Southwestern than our Ancient Puebloan Ruins. Built roughly 700 to 1000 years ago, they dot our sage, rabbitbrush and piñon/juniper mesatops, canyon floors and sandstone cliffs. They lie beneath thousands of mounts of southwest earth, where their stones or adobes have tumbled or melted. They are, it seems, [...]
After the Rain
Posted in Four Corners, Landscapes, Natural History, Parks & Monuments, Western Photography, Western Travel Writing, tagged Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, Hovenweep, wildlife on October 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In September we camped at Hovenweep National Monument. Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad. Most people haven’t, including many of our Southwestern friends. Although it’s been a national monument since 1923, less than one million folks have ever visited. Hovenweep (Paiute/Ute for deserted valley) straddles the Utah/Colorado border in the Four Corners area, less [...]
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