Pithouses at Mesa Verde

Grindstone from 6th or 7th century, Mesa Verde pithouse

Pithouse at Mesa Top Loop, Mesa Verde National Park

Now that we're back home from our long trip west, I have time to think about the beauty of the ruins we saw in Mesa Verde. I can wonder and learn more about the history of these ancient people who lived in this difficult country from around the 6th to the 13th century and then moved on. Above all, I can remember my experiences of visiting their early pithouses on the tops of the mesas and their amazing cliff dwellings in the alcoves under the cliffs. I tried to learn what the early people ate, as well as many other things about their lives and their material culture.

On the morning of the day we spent in Mesa Verde, we followed the Mesa Top Loop, stopping at every opportunity to see the dramatic overlooks down into the canyons and to see the archaeological sites of very early pithouses, the dwellings of the first Pueblo people to arrive in the area.

Wild turkey at Mesa Verde

Around the dwellings, we learned, were the fields where the Indians raised corn, beans, and squash. They gathered foods such as calorie-rich pine-nuts from the pinyon pine, and hunted game. They domesticated the local turkeys, and also raised dogs. (I assume that like the peoples of Central America, they ate dog meat).

Archaeologists have discovered numerous channels that the ancient people used to control the many streams of water around their fields; the exact purpose of these water projects is not fully understood.

In their below-ground buildings, which originally had wood-timbered roofs, people slept, ate, stored their grain supplies and other foods in baskets and skin bags, ground grain on grindstones, cooked over a central fire pit, and generally led their lives. Clay drinking vessels, seed pots, and other pottery have been found in the digs. Some interior spaces appear to have been used as meeting places as well as for living.

The many excavations we saw are protected by metal buildings and railings to keep out rain, wind, snow, and tourists. We read many explanatory placards like the one illustrated above, and found the documentation very helpful in learning the history of the people who lived in these pithouses until the late 12th century. At that time, for reasons that are not well-understood, they began to build new dwellings -- cliff houses -- in shallow caves, or alcoves, in the sides of the cliffs. The amazing alcove dwellings, many visible from the Mesa Top Loop overlooks, are of course the most famous aspect of the park.

Mesa Verde pottery from the ancient peoples -- in park museum.

I'll be writing more blog posts about the cliff dwellings and how they were discovered in the late 19th century.

Cliff dwelling from Mesa Top Loop viewpoint.

Mesa Verde to Brighton, Colorado

We left Mesa Verde this morning and drove all day. We're now in a motel in Brighton, Colorado, just outside Denver where we experienced the worst traffic of our whole trip, including both times crossing Los Angeles! Luckily there's a little family-owned taco joint just across an open field from the motel, and we had an absolutely delicious dinner there, so I'm more relaxed than I was just after the drive.

Chile Relleno at Spicy Tacos

"Molcajete Mexicano" at Spicy Tacos, including cactus pads, cheese, chiles,
chicken, steak, and a delicious sauce. 

I thought about how many of the foods we think of as "Mexican" were grown by the ancient Pueblo people that we learned much about in Mesa Verde. I'll be posting many more photos of our visit when we return home.

A grindstone for preparing corn in one of the ancient Pueblo people's cliff dwellings from
the 13th century, and our park-ranger guide to Balcony House in Mesa Verde.
Did they make tortillas like the ones we ate tonight?

Mesa Verde: Birdwatching While Eating Dinner

This must be the bluebird of happiness! We saw it on the way to dinner at the lodge in Mesa Verde,
where we arrived a bit earlier this afternoon after a day's drive from Flagstaff via Monument Valley. 

The view out the window of the restaurant was spectacular --
we could watch several bluebirds and other birds from our table.
And every dish was great, starting with this salad.

Len's salad

We shared the mixed grill game dish: quail, elk tenderloin, and boar sausage on hot-pepper mashed potatoes.
We had heard from Carol that there was a wonderful restaurant here: how true!

The dessert tray: we chose cheesecake (left front).

On the way back to our room we saw the final glow of the sunset.

Road Trip: Burgers and Fries

Kingman, Arizona

Four long days of driving from St.Louis to the Grand Canyon and on to California meant four quick lunches. This gave us an unanticipated chance to directly compare the quality and taste of MacDonald's, Burger King, and In-N-Out burger. Here's what we decided:

• MacDonald's quarter pounder with cheese isn't that great. On our second visit, I had a McChicken-Cheddar which tasted of nothing but pepper, and had too much breading. The fries are skinny, a little soggy, and not really super tasty. Also they don't pick up the catsup as effectively as the competitors' fries do.
• Burger King's Whopper Jr. was juicier than MacD's burger, and had more lettuce. The fries were thick, crisp, and tasty. Better on both counts.
• In-N-Out Burger deserves its reputation. We see why there are such long lines at all of them -- we stopped at the one in Kingman, Arizona. The burgers are even better, the cheese is meltier, and they have the most lettuce and tomato. The fries are thick, crisp, and just a bit better than fries at Burger King. As I've written before, In-N-Out is a superior hamburger joint, though I'm not sure I agree with people who think it's over-the-top-excellent food and who write poetry about it.

Len pays for In-N-Out Burgers.

So glad our burger-and-fries diet is over and we're in our little apartment with a real kitchen!

Road Trip: Best Western Breakfast

Images of breakfast at two Best Western motels where we stayed

All that driving! As we came from Michigan to California we spent three nights in Best Western motels. Two of them offered the standard Best Western breakfast including dry cereal with milk, make-it-yourself waffles, yogurt, juice, fruit, coffee, bagels, muffins, and some hot items. Our third Best Western had a full-service restaurant that looked very slow, so we went next door for coffee at a Starbucks and got on the road. (We also stayed with family for four nights and in the Grand Canyon lodge two nights.)

This is the kind of food that seems to be overlooked from the point of view of food writers or food bloggers. It's so ordinary, so predictable, so unworthy of description. We've eaten Best Western breakfasts (or equivalents in other chains) numerous times on other trips as well, and this is the first time I've ever thought of mentioning it.

The point of a motel breakfast buffet, I think, is to help travelers get on the road, to help business people get to their appointments, or to help tourists get to a museum or a mall, a beach or a hike, whatever they have planned. No formalities, no waiting, nothing to sign. Most of the guests seem to enjoy the selection, especially kids. Plentiful choices of very familiar food are just what people want -- and the fact that it's included in the price of the motel is a powerful attraction.

Fred Harvey at the Grand Canyon

We hiked several sections of trail along the rim of the Grand Canyon, including a visit to Hermit’s Rest, a historic building at the far end of the park road. It’s integrated into the surroundings in a very forward-looking way for its time: 1914. At that time, it took quite a while to get there, so the building offered food and a place to rest for the travelers. Today, a shuttle bus allows one to combine hiking and an easy bus ride.

On the way to Hermit's Rest

Gate to Hermit's Rest

Len at Hermit's Rest

The huge fireplace dominates the interior of the building.

The back of the building

Mary Ann Colter, architect for the Fred Harvey company, designed Hermit’s Rest as well as several other park buildings.

“As with the other buildings she designed for Grand Canyon, Mary Colter designed Hermit’s Rest in what is known as 'National Park Rustic' style. In this style, buildings are supposed to look as if they were built with old-fashioned hand tools and made of materials that at least appear to have been taken from the surrounding landscape. Whereas her first building at Grand Canyon, Hopi House, was inspired by ancient Native American traditions in the area, for Hermit’s Rest Colter drew upon the stories and architecture of Euro-American settlers. The resulting building reflected both the National Park rustic style and Colter’s concept of a hermit’s stone cabin.” -- from "Hermit's Rest" by Arizona State University.

The Harvey company developed tourism in the West in cooperation with the railroads. The Xanterra company that runs the accommodations and food service in the park today is a commercial descendant of Harvey. The old Fred Harvey trademarks still appear on a number of buildings, such as the reservation center, cafeteria, and gift shop of the Yavapai Lodge where we stayed, actually a collection of buildings like old-fashioned motels.

During our stay we ate dinner in two restaurants with the Harvey name. The restaurant in Bright Angel Lodge offers some of the same foods as once served by the Harvey Girls who worked in the many establishments of the Harvey company. I had trout with lemon sauce, and Len had pork roast – both possibly similar to the food of 100 years ago or more. We also ate in the cafeteria of Yavapai Lodge, where my chicken pot pie may be quite authentic to the former era, but it was kind of bland.

The Fred Harvey cafeteria in Yavapai Lodge -- not
a particularly inviting atmosphere!

Every gift shop in the park offers a number of books about the Harvey Girls (famous before the movie with Judy Garland), the Harvey company, about the historic and significant buildings designed by Colter, and the development of travel in the west. Another Colter building, the “studio,” was where the Harvey Company sold photos, post cards, and other items in competition with an artist who had a studio nearby -- the same type of items still for sale in the gift shops now.

The Studio, designed by Mary Ann Colter

Dinner in Albuquerque

Still driving west. Today: Oklahoma City to Albuquerque. We arrived in time to walk around Old Town Albuquerque, check one or two Indian arts stores and some low-end souvenir shops, and eat dinner at the High Noon Saloon. For much more about my day, see this post at maetravels.

High Noon Saloon is in a building with some very old architecture, though
it's also been rebuilt quite a bit. We liked the decor.

Southwest style wall paintings, light fixtures, and furniture...

After burritos and enchiladas and beer, which in photos don't as good as they taste,
we had a cobbler and a flan for dessert.

Spring flowers are even further advanced here than in Oklahoma.

From Winter to Spring

When we left Ann Arbor, everything was snow-covered.
West Lafayette was cold, but no snow, and the trees were bare.
We were very cold when birdwatching at Celery Bog.
Len and Elaine went down to the Wabash River and saw this eagle
while I was huddling by the fireplace.

As we drove towards St.Louis from Indiana, we started
to see a little bit of light green in the fields and on highway medians.
In St.Louis a few early trees and daffodils were in bloom,
including Jay and Ruby's star magnolia shown here. 

Tonight we are in Oklahoma City. As we left Missouri on highway 44 this morning,
the light greens turned to bright greens and we started to see trees with tiny leaves and
some in full bloom, like this one in a shopping center near where we ate dinner.

Besides birdwatching in West Lafayette, we went to two sanctuaries on
the Mississippi near St.Louis.

We were impressed by the bird blind that looked like a big sculpture.

What you can see from inside the blind.

The blind from outside. The ponds are controlled by levees, and invite both
winter migrants (which left a few weeks ago, alas) and summer resident birds.
We just saw a few, though quite nice ones.

Bridge over the Mississippi from the Riverlands Sanctuary.

Confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. I remember going near
here when I was a child, but it was all farmers' fields and you couldn't
get to the actual point from which we observed this. It was great!

Birds in the ponds of the Missouri Bottoms Conservation area,
which includes the south-west point at the confluence.
Correction: should be Columbia Bottoms Conservation area.

Just Visiting

Friday night we arrived in West Lafayette. Here's what we've been eating as we visit our relatives.
My sister Elaine had made a splendid Julia Child ragout with potatoes and greenbeans to
start our entertaining weekend.

After a day of birdwatching at the rather cold Celery Bog and near the Wabash,
we went to dinner at a nicely decorated Thai restaurant with Elaine, Larry,
and their friends David, and Jenny.

The appetizers were quite delicate. All the dishes were spiced deliciously.

I asked to see a kaffir lime leaf, which was listed as the spice in one or two dishes.
They brought this one. It smells citrusy and tastes like lemon and citronella.
I don't think the flavor was in anything we ordered,
but we loved the duck, mango fried rice, several other dishes, and the dessert of mango mousse. 

We arrived in St.Louis Sunday afternoon, and went to the famous "Hill" Italian
neighborhood for dinner with Len's sister Ruby and brother-in-law Jay.
Finally as we were leaving Indiana we found beautiful sunshine, warm temperatures,
and fields with tiny green plants! It is beautiful here.

The famous St.Louis Italian signature dish: toasted ravioli!

A muskrat in the celery bog. I'll leave all the bird photos to Lenny.

We'll be in St.Louis a couple of days, then head onward towards Santa Barbara. We are so glad to be finished with winter at least for the moment, and hope to avoid bad weather as we continue across the country.