Windwhistle campground

Friday, 9/14

We left Mesa Verde this morning.  Kind of sad to leave, actually.  At this park particularly, you're so much aware of the cultural/anthropological HUMAN history.  Of course there's awesome geology and wildlife too (deer galore, wild horses, coyotes yipping at night...and we heard that there are also mountain lions, bobcats, bear and elk)....also 800+ year old stands of old growth juniper trees.  But the human history is what really made an impression.  Finding centuries-old pottery fragments along our path, standing in buildings that were built entirely by hand, centuries ago and STILL are impressive for their beautiful lines and incredible use of the stone and natural alcoves in these stunning canyons.  Were these really "primitive" people?!  Agrarian, predominantly peaceful (the word Hopi means "peace") and their culture continues even today.  All the more astonishing given their increasing annexation by US Govt plus the much stronger and more financially successful Navajo tribes which have usurped much of the land they were given by the Spaniards before we were even a country.

As you can perhaps tell, I've gotten pretty interested in Hopi history (which is complex and interesting and tragic and dramatic all rolled into one).

Well, as I already mentioned, we were on our way to beautiful SE Utah again---Arches and Canyonland are next on our agenda.  We planned a short=ish drive (after stopping at the big Walmart in Cortez, just outside of Mesa Verde) to a place just south of Moab, on the Needles overlook road.  You might recall that we camped on Needles highway in South Dakota, near Custer.  When the geology looks really spiky it's called Needles.    In case that wasn't already obvious to you.  We pulled into a BLM campsite (run by the Bureau of Land Management) and we were only one of two trailers camped there.  SO quiet and beautiful and peaceful and remote.  As soon as we'd unhitched, we drove out to the Needles Overlook.  It was as vast as the Grand Canyon!  Quite overcast as well (smog?) so the pictures don't do it justice.  But here are some anyway:

Just a little piece of the vastness

That's Lisa looking over the edge.....it's hundreds of feet to the floor and many many miles across. Only sound was the wind blowing, and we had it all to ourselves on this hot afternoon.

There's our white RV and truck in the middle left of the photo

We climbed easily up to the middle of this "sliprock" (where the longest horizontal line of greenery is).....we were surrounded by these big rocks on three sides.

As the sun was setting, the colors became more and more beautiful