September 11, 2008

September 11, 2008

From the Mesa Verde area in southwestern Colorado, we drove west via back roads to the remote site of Hovenweep National Monument. Apparently it is not remote enough or there are plenty of nuts like me, because the parking lot is full. Hovenweep is one of many ancient Anasazi Indians ruins scattered around the Southwest. This one consists of several communities that built stone buildings atop the rims of local canyons. Aimee and I take a 2-mile hike around one of the canyons. There are only a handful of stone ruins left but it is clear they were defensive in nature, probably protecting the trickle of life-sustaining water in the canyon. The question is who were they afraid of? Themselves? Like elsewhere, the Anasazi villages were all abandoned around 1300 AD. I guess eventually the water dried up so much it wasn’t worth protecting anymore. One of the rim ruins we passed was called Twin Towers. It reminds us that today is 9-11 and makes us think about where we were on this day seven years ago.

From Hovenweep, we work our way northwest to Blanding, UT, where we visit the town’s Dinosaur Museum. Although small it is very nice, concentrating on only a few topics. One section is about dinosaur footprints. I was surprised to learn that dinosaur track fossils are very common and provide lots of information on dinosaur social behavior. They have found thousands between Denver and Texas, the site of an ancient seashore. So many that they think it used to be a dino migration route. Another section of the museum is on feathered dinosaurs and the evolution of birds from reptile ancestors. The last and most amusing is dinosaurs in film. That section brought back a lot of memories. We spend the night at an RV park two blocks away. Now that is convenient.