Autumn Desert Get Away - Part 2

saturday morning we broke camp and then headed over to hovenweep. 

 we saw some horses. maybe wild horses?

our only camping plan was to backcountry camp, but it was an unfamiliar area. we drove down a few random dirt roads near the monument and didn't find anything. thankfully, there was a helpful ranger at the visitor's center who told us where we could go (inside the monument to camp). we got our camp site set up and then went on the main loop hike near the visitors center. there were people around, but it was easy to keep your distance. and, really, there weren't very many people. 

 i was worried when we first started this loop that it might not be that cool since you couldn't go down into the canyon and it was so easy. but we quickly learned that it is a really cool place. there were so many structures in a relatively small area. 

what a great spiral. 

 another beautiful yellow alamo!

 i love the chinking on this one. 

 what a well-formed structure. this site really had wonderful craftspersonship. 

 (i had to borrow a t-shirt from b as i had only packed the one that we drove down in. i thought i was a better packer than that.)

 this structure was incredible. 

 the view of this big complex from the other side of the canyon. that back wall is so large. 

 sierra's moustache. 

 good detailing at the visitors center. 

 cortez is 42 miles either way you choose to go. 

 a cool circular building. 

 a rock angel. 

 we found another snake!

 this one had a beautiful pattern too, but was a different kind than the one we saw on friday.

 we came back by this place and saw the snake again. it really seemed to want to get inside the structure. and it tried very hard to find an opening it could make it up to. but it never quite made it.

 but look at that chinking!

 as you can tell, we watched it for quite a while--maybe 20-30 minutes.

 we had some extra time before dark so we struck out to see what we might find. we didn't find much, but b did find a potsherd and realized we were in a potsherd area. we fanned out and found several potsherds. here's one cathy found.

 a piece with part of a handle.

 a beautiful sunset saturday night.

 we tried to fashion a spoon for cathy to eat with from the broken half of sierra's spork. it was a clever idea, but the heat from her dinner pouch didn't like having plastic taped to wood. the tape came loose and, alas, this didn't work. 

 the moon.

 sunday morning we broke camp and had desert home church. it was a nice service. we then went on another hike before heading home. b found this tarantula in it's true desert element. so exciting!

 such a cool structure. note in these pictures how it's built up on a large rock and built right up to the edge of the rock edge. very, very cool. 

 you can see, we were quite smitten with this building. this one just seems like it would be so hard to construct.

 note the beams of wood at the top of the structure on the right.

 some rock are we found. 

 too late to be useful to cathy and her friday and saturday night dinners, we found a spoon.

 we have a long drive to get home (about 5 hours). it took us through SW colorado. on the way we were able to stop at a cool old ancestral puebloan complex. 

 the great kiva there was one of the coolest things i've seen at a site. note the illustration to the left, there were two rock figures built into the ground that looked so, so kachina like. they were described by a contemporary pueblo woman as a winter figure and a summer figure. again, very very kachina like. 

 and the great kiva, as you can see, was massive. imagine all of the people who could have fit in this.