Before you read this post, you might want to click play on this video for the soundtrack:
All photographs by Historiann or Fratguy, June 30 – July3, 2011. Warning: explicit images below the fold!
Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park
Chicago Basin
- Wild columbines
Mother and baby mountain goats
Giant pickup full of antlers
- Fratguy making coffee at camp
Historiann
Historiann 
Awww — It’s almost as nice as New Mexico. But not.
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What? Historiann turns out to be a hot babe with an incredibly regal head/neck! But no chaps? No lasso? No horse? I’m speechless.
On the other hand, Fratguy looks like a really handy fella to have around the campfire. Definitely a male lesbian, as I expected and declared. 😉
Isn’t Mesa Verde amazing? “A city of stone, asleep . . . . “
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Did/do they have a co-op or condo board at Cliff Palace, and would I have any hassle trying to buy-in there? 24/7 gym and spa and shuttle service to the next town?
Chicago Basin looks great. I can’t help wondering about the name. Did some McCormick Reaper heir buy the whole mountain, or part of a plan to pipe water from the Great Lakes? These pictures look great. Thanks for sharing.
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Heh. I don’t think the Cliff Palace has gone condo, but quite frankly, I don’t think it’s got all of the creture comforts that you might like, Indyanna. (Like running water and a sewage system.) You might try Bandaleer National Monument in New Mexico.
Thanks, Roxie. I have to stretch my neck out like that so the wrinkles don’t show so badly. And cowgirl gear is really not the kind of gear for a wilderness hike, although you’re right that the hat is all wrong. (At least the neck flap isn’t down in this photo, which makes me look like the Queen of All Dorks. I don’t think it’s possible to look sexy or cool in a hat with mudflaps, do you?)
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That looks like fun. Take me with you!
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It helps to have a lovely face to go with the lovely writing. But what’s that about camping; there are motels near Mesa Verde.
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I could be all wrong, but that doesn’t look like a campsite in Mesa Verde itself. Too green.
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Leslie–you are correct. We camped in Chicago Basin, which with 51 other hikers and campers, plus all of the mountain goat families, kind of felt like Chicago itself!
Mesa Verde was an all-too-short half-day trip we did the day before we started the hike and camping bit. It really deserves a day and a half or two to itself, and koshem Bos, there’s even a lodge atop the Mesa, with a fancy-schmancy restaurant! Next time that’s the way to go, for sure.
Notorious: come along, any time! You’ll just have to carry your own pack, and pack out your toilet paper. (I hope you’re not squeamish!)
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And p.s.: I thought the truck with the artfully, and very carefully packed and stacked antlers was the most notable photograph of all of them. Doesn’t that strike anyone else as super-weird? Fratguy took that one as we sped home on I-25 at the end of the trip, and we followed it (carefully, at a distance) for a spell because it was so strange and perfect.
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Re the antlers. I’m trying to remember where it was–recently–that we saw storefronts with stacks of antlers outside. You know…for decor or ambiance or something. New Mexico or Colorado. Chicago Basin looks amazing. I’m off to check out maps…for next year’s road trip.
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Jackson Hole, Wyo. has a town square with an enormous archway in the middle all built with elk and deer antlers.
They’re really a lot less impressive when you realize that elk are farmed out here for meat! But, hey: never let something useful go unused. We must respect the sacred gift of protein and use the animals thoroughly if we’re going to eat ’em.
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So I suppose I need to do a “stuff we see in Northern Ontario” post, soon? With a shot of the Big Nickel?
Great pictures, by the way! We don’t get so much elk up here as moose, but nobody’s collected that many moose antlers in one fell swoop, far as I know.
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He’s certainly got a lesbian-style beanie on!
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Janice: show me some of your original old-growth forests. That would be totes worth seeing. I need to get up to the UP of MI to see some of the old growth stuff they’ve got up there, but it’s kind of a schlep from my family’s Michigan compound.
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And CPP: lesbians call that a Fratguy hat.
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Wait, there’s old growth in the UP? I thought it all got cut to a) build Chicago and b) for copper mine timbering.
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Wow. That shot of Cliff Palace is amazing, and leaves me totally lost for scale. Bet those antlers are off to souvenir shops!!! And Janice: Yay Sudbury! Took a tour of the Big Nickel mine many many moons ago.
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“Fratguy hat” makes a lot of sense; I’ve got an entire drawer full of those fuckers!
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I envy this voyage.
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Almost all of the old growth forest hereabouts, for hours and hours driving, is gone. The legacy of life in a nickel mining town which processed ore by roasting it in open fields for months on end within a forestry industry region: heavily acidified soils that continue to require aggressive remediation. *sigh*
The next time I get over to the Lower Spanish, I will definitely share pictures of some of the stretches of old growth forest because they are awe-inspiring!
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