Kegs and Kivas (and a big canyon)

Wild horses at Mesa Verde

Paul flew in Sunday morning, and thus began the great adventure of our return home.  After breakfast and Mass in Durango, we visited Steamworks brewpub, a local favorite.  I’d been meaning to visit this place since my first week in Colorado – there was an hour and a half wait during our first intern night out.  The beer was delicious.  Paul tried their gold-medal-winning stout (he let me have a few sips) and it was excellent.  After our beer adventure, we drove to Mesa Verde National Park and spent a couple hours touring Spruce Tree House, making friendly conversation with park rangers, and getting stuck behind people in SUVs who stopped in the road to take pictures of wild horses.  We had to stop, so Paul snapped a picture of the first pair of horses we saw.  We ended our evening in Dolores – an old railroad town just northeast of Cortez.  Our hotel was right across the street from the “pub” (Dolores River Brewery), so we walked over for a couple beers and a pizza.

Spruce Tree House!

We had a slow morning on Monday – Dolores is the kind of town where people gather at a restaurant every morning to shoot the breeze over breakfast.  As such, we didn’t make it out to the site (Goodman Point Pueblo) until after nine.  I gave Paul the quick tour of my “workplace,” then we took a short walk around Crow Canyon’s campus.  By noon we reached the tourist trap that is the Four Corners monument (hey, you kind of have to do it) and took appropriately silly photos before hitting the road again.  The afternoon drive through stormy monument valley/Navajo and Hopi reservations was beautiful.  When we were about half an hour from the Grand Canyon entrance, we ran into a pretty strong storm.  It was pouring by the time we could see the canyon, so of course I had to run around and take a look.  After a few more miles of driving, the rain had stopped and the canyon was full of white, cloudy mist.  Just a few more minutes later, the mist was completely gone.  I’ve seen a very different side of the canyon than in July of 2004 when I was here with my family.

Misty Grand Canyon

Today we had planned to spend the day hiking – but awoke to the sound of rain on the roof.  Thankfully it let up and after a hearty breakfast, we started hiking into the Canyon.  It rained on-and-off, which made for some wet, muddy hiking.  We made it to the first stopping point a mile and a half down, and figured we should head back before the weather got worse (which it did).  By the time we got back to the top, visibility was very poor – at times all you could see was the trail!  We kept ourselves occupied this afternoon, visiting some 13^th century ruins and a small museum near the east entrance to the park.  It was interesting to see the differences in kiva structure and size – smaller and with some different architectural features than Mesa Verde or Chacoan kivas.  On the way back we got a glimpse of a rainbow in the misty canyon – then saw the mist blow away over the course of about five minutes.  Crazy!

As I write this, the rain falls yet again on the roof of our lodge.  I’m pretty sure the rain is supposed to stop tomorrow afternoon – and we’ll be well on our way to the next stop on our journey – Santa Fe!