Thanksgiving morning began very early for us, as we aimed to make it to two national parks that are separated by several hundred miles. We started at Mesa Verde, the only national park whose primary purpose is to protect cultural heritage rather than nature. The park includes the ruins of the Pueblo and Anasazi Native Americans. Archeologists have excavated pit houses from about 500 A.D. that were basically mounds of earth built up over fire pits. By about 1000 A.D., the Native Americans were building one and two-story abode homes, and by 1300 A.D. they built housing and structures into the caves, though the entire gig was abandoned at about this point. The cliff dwellings are still well-preserved in the middle of a canyon, so we were able to see a bit of those.
The road to the next park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, passes through some crazy high mountains at the highest elevations we’ve been at yet. I sang along with the iPod for one song and spent the next 10 minutes catching my breath. At the second pass (10,910 ft above sea level), I had to pass the driving over the Brad after I got too dizzy to keep driving (no guardrails on most of these roads, by the way). We went up to 11,008 feet before blessedly heading back to more reasonable elevations.
Next up was a trip to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, a canyon (surprise!) in western Colorado. We wandered around a nature trail and took some pictures before heading to the IHOP in Grand Junction.
And yes, we even managed to have turkey for Thanksgiving ;)
-M
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