today we started out bright and early (while it was still cool) at aztec ruins national historic park in aztec, nm. this park was right in the middle of town, which seemed odd to us! (as all the ones before we'd visited were WAY away from any modern development!)
here is kendal standing by a morter stone:
and here is nathaniel and kendal heading down into the ruins! (plus a video of the same spot...)
these are metates (meh-tah-teys) which is a grinding stone.
i just thought this shot was cool because it kinda looked scary, which is exactly the way the back part of the ruins felt! (they were generally used for storage, not sleeping or cooking or partying.)
look at my cute little baby through a tiny window!
and... here i am pushing kendal around the kiva! (wow, look at that belly!)
i liked this photo because it still had some of the old wood in it!
ok, so after we left aztec ruins, we went north towards durango, CO and took a westerly turn to mesa verde (near mancos, CO). mesa verde is very appropriately named, as we had to wind up a HUGE mesa to get into the park.the pueblos in mesa verde were very widespread ... took 30 minutes to drive anywhere to see ruins. that wasn't generally a problem, except when we got stuck behind some slow poke! anyway, upon our arrival, we went directly to the visitor center to buy nathaniel a ticket so he could have a tour of one of the three main pueblos. (only he went because #1 i've been there twice before, and #2 none of the tour-pueblos are stroller accessable nor did we feel safe climbing ladders with a baby on our backs!) anyway, nathaniel visited cliff palace (seen here from the TOP of the mesa).
he had to climb down a ton of stairs to get into cliff palace. here is what was above the main housing area (storage? this photo needs a scale... but he said the area was about 4' tall.)
a shot of the "older" part of cliff palace (1000 ad):
a tall room (3 stories):
and, finally, pictographs at cliff palace which was found in the top of the tall tower pictured above (he is laying down taking a photo UP towards the ceiling, this painting was on the side wall).
and here is nathaniel and kendal heading down into the ruins! (plus a video of the same spot...)
these are metates (meh-tah-teys) which is a grinding stone.
i just thought this shot was cool because it kinda looked scary, which is exactly the way the back part of the ruins felt! (they were generally used for storage, not sleeping or cooking or partying.)
look at my cute little baby through a tiny window!
and... here i am pushing kendal around the kiva! (wow, look at that belly!)
i liked this photo because it still had some of the old wood in it!
ok, so after we left aztec ruins, we went north towards durango, CO and took a westerly turn to mesa verde (near mancos, CO). mesa verde is very appropriately named, as we had to wind up a HUGE mesa to get into the park.the pueblos in mesa verde were very widespread ... took 30 minutes to drive anywhere to see ruins. that wasn't generally a problem, except when we got stuck behind some slow poke! anyway, upon our arrival, we went directly to the visitor center to buy nathaniel a ticket so he could have a tour of one of the three main pueblos. (only he went because #1 i've been there twice before, and #2 none of the tour-pueblos are stroller accessable nor did we feel safe climbing ladders with a baby on our backs!) anyway, nathaniel visited cliff palace (seen here from the TOP of the mesa).
he had to climb down a ton of stairs to get into cliff palace. here is what was above the main housing area (storage? this photo needs a scale... but he said the area was about 4' tall.)
a shot of the "older" part of cliff palace (1000 ad):
a tall room (3 stories):
and, finally, pictographs at cliff palace which was found in the top of the tall tower pictured above (he is laying down taking a photo UP towards the ceiling, this painting was on the side wall).
did you see the metates in bandolier? they were scattered in the buildings, in the corners. they were awesome. made me want one to crush corn... mmm corn tortillas.
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