Friday, June 29, 2012

Chaco Culture National Park- Day 2

Friday & Saturday

We had a great day checking out the ruins at Chaco again today.  We got to see the main ruins that have been partially excavated.  It is sad that there isn't enough funding to excavate and restore more of this ancient culture.  So much is still not known about them.  Rachael and I started a hike up the canyon at about 3:30.  It was a steep hike.  We got to see some beautiful sites as well as some fossils.  It's so hard to believe that when we were on the top of the canyon wall, we were standing on the bottom of an ancient ocean.  Rachael and I were having a great time talking and joking together.  We lost sight of the carins that mark the trail.  We lost track of time and before we knew it the sun was going down and we were hurrying to get to the bottom before it got dark.  We just made it by the skin of our teeth!  When we went to the car there was a police officer there.  We thought he was there because the park service knew we were running late.  That wasn't the case.  I got a ticket for being on the trails after hours !  $125 !  I explained how we got lost but the officer thought we were stealing or defacing the ruins / artifacts !  It was 9:30 before we made our way towards the visitors center where there was an astronomy presentation going on that I wanted to see.  We stayed for about 30 minutes and then left because we were so tired.  We still had about an hour drive back to the hotel and 1/2 of that was on a dirt road.  We finally got to the hotel at around midnight and we were exhausted.  We ate some leftovers that were in our cooler and went to bed.  A few hours later I woke up to nausea and vomiting... I guess the food had gone bad.  I was sick all night.  Rachael was fine, I don't know why.  Before I knew it we had to get up and check out.  We stayed as late as we could.  We found a tire store to check the air in our tires and then made our way to the next town, Cortez, Colorado.  This is the nearest town to the Mesa Verde National park.  We ate lunch at a little diner called Budy's Diner.  The food was great and the people there were so nice.  They appeared to be Native American.  After we ate we checked into the hotel and I slept... I was still weak and tired from the night before.  Later on in the evening we went swimming in the hotel pool.  Even though it had been over 100 degrees in the day, it was nice and cool in the evening.  So much so that I was freezing getting out of the pool which was miraculously cool.  Heading to bed now... full day tomorrow !

Pictures can be found at :  https://plus.google.com/photos/104423898538711271791/albums/5760077625668415249?authkey=CKjFoYH-q8CIlwE

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