Welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your host Marc Guido, and we are still here
in southwestern Colorado camping at Mancos State Park. We're going to be
moving on today to Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. However, on
the way we're going to visit Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep National
Monuments to check out some ancient Anasazi culture, so stay tuned!
Campsites in Mancos State Park, a few miles north of Mancos, Colorado near Mesa Verde,
National Park as well as Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, are dry
camping for $18 per night with both potable water and a dump station
included right in the campground. If you'd like to learn more about camping
at Mancos State Park, check out our last episode number 99 on the Durango &
Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. We'll put a handy link to that episode right here
on your screen if you'd like to go back and check it out.
The Anasazi Heritage Center north of Cortez, Colorado, is also the Visitor
Center for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, and includes artifacts
from the Monument, a museum with interactive exhibits, a library and
theater. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument encompasses over a 167,000 acres in the far southwestern corner of Colorado, managed
by the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM. Established in June of 2000, the monument
was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological
sites in the United States. The Monument has been used or inhabited by humans,
including the northern ancestral Puebloan culture or Anasazi, for ten thousand
years. The Anasazi lived in the Canyons of the
Ancients beginning in the 10th century. Pottery became more versatile, including
pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars, and tableware for food and drink. White pottery with
black designs emerged, the pigments coming from plants. Water management and
conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt-retaining
dams, also emerged during this period. As refinements and construction techniques
increased the Puebloans built larger pueblos or villages on top of the pit
houses starting early in the 11th century. Lowry Pueblo, built during the
great pueblo period, was built atop a pit house built in the 10th century. The site
nine miles west of the hamlet of Pleasant View, Colorado, was first
excavated in 1931 and went through a restoration process in 1965. Two years
later, Lowry Pueblo was named a National Historic Landmark and was
listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Lowry Pueblo had just a
few rooms and two kivas in the year 1090, and the village was expanded two times about
1103 and 1120 until it had 40 rooms, eight kivas and one great kiva. The Lowry
Pueblo dwellers were farmers and hunters. They grew beans, corn and squash, and
raised turkeys. They also made and decorated pottery. It is believed that
Lowry Pueblo was inhabited until the middle of the 12th century. Some of the
artifacts found throughout Canyons of the Ancients show a connection to the
Chacoan culture, while others are similar to those of the nearby Mesa
Verde dwellers. The great kiva at Lowry Pueblo is considered one of the
northernmost great houses connected to Chaco Canyon in the region. Based upon
the size of the kiva it's thought that the Lowry Pueblo may have been a local
center for religious gatherings and celebration. The Sand Canyon Trail,
accessed via two trail heads along County Road G following the McElmo
Creek beneath Sleeping Ute Mountain, is open for hiking, mountain biking or
horseback riding.
Several small ruins, including the Saddle Horn Pueblo seen here, are located
roughly a mile in from the trailhead.
However, to find the largest collection of ruins, continue on until you are about
three miles from your car. After taking in the vista at Utes View Point, the
trail descends a shallow canyon with many ruins embedded in the cliff face on
the opposite north side.
I've got to say that's a hike that we can heartily recommend . It's about three
miles each way to get to the best of the ruins, so about six miles roundtrip, but
not with really a lot of elevation gain. Not a lot of shade out there, it's mostly
junipers and pinyon pines, but some beautiful ruins and not a heavily
traveled trail. Highly recommend it! We still had more to show you in this part
of the Four Corners area. Our rig, however, had other ideas.
A broken leaf spring on the trailer's passenger side rear wheel has left us
dead in the water.
We're thankful that we're in the middle of nowhere on a remote county road with
little traffic passing by in either direction. At least the views from here
are stupendous.
So we really hope you've enjoyed this 100th episode of Grand Adventure! Our
intention was to also bring you into Hovenweep National Monument for more
Anasazi ruins; however, our little breakdown on the side of the road kept
us from doing that. A big shout-out to Tom Gentry, the RV mobile repair guy who
came out and fixed our broken leaf spring. Tom was incredibly personable,
very prompt, and eminently fair in his rate, so thank you very much, Tom! We'd
recommend you to anybody. We're going to put a link, or excuse me ... Tom's phone number,
down in the video description below this video, in case you ever need RV mobile
repair services in the Four Corners area. If you're not yet a Grand Adventurer,
now's the time hit that subscribe button, because we're down in Bears Ears
National Monument right now! That's where we were heading when we had our
breakdown, and that'll be our next episode 101 of Grand Adventure. Ring
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please remember ... life is nothing but a Grand Adventure! We'll see you next week!