I have slept almost all the time since returning, and LJ-app on my iPod cruelly devoured the post I was working on during the trip, so there were no posts while on the road
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All the Anasazi ruins are so beautiful. It's really fascinating and a little bit creepy to be driving around the little back roads, well aware that there could be a deep, deep canyon 100 feet away and you couldn't see it through the brush, and that that canyon would likely have a ruined cliff dwelling nestled in it.
A lot of the dwellings are fascinating - there's one in Canyon de Chelly (I think) which was literally built with no way to get in, either through the outside or through the rooves, but had lots of pottery and grain and so on in the many connected dwellings inside. As best anyone can tell, it was built, things were moved in, they closed off the ceiling, then literally covered it in dirt and rocks and moved away from the area without ever living in it.
I think my favorite ruin was Keet Seel - it's about 20 miles from the nearest road, so getting to it involves a very long day hike or horse back ride. As a result it's in incredible condition, with pots and stores of dried corn still sitting where the Anasazi left them 600 years ago. There's a half-built wall, which is very neat to see because of the ability to see the construction, and they took a huge log and threaded it through a number of buildings to bar the entrance path. You can still crouch and go under it, but it must have been an amazing amount of work.
Wow I have been out of it as far as comments are concerned! But yes, the ruins are beautiful and fascinating.
That closed in one is... wow. I hadn't heard of it but that's something wonderful to speculate on. Symbolism? Religion? Something bad happened partway through the moving process so they decided to leave? What a mystery.
A lot of the dwellings are fascinating - there's one in Canyon de Chelly (I think) which was literally built with no way to get in, either through the outside or through the rooves, but had lots of pottery and grain and so on in the many connected dwellings inside. As best anyone can tell, it was built, things were moved in, they closed off the ceiling, then literally covered it in dirt and rocks and moved away from the area without ever living in it.
I think my favorite ruin was Keet Seel - it's about 20 miles from the nearest road, so getting to it involves a very long day hike or horse back ride. As a result it's in incredible condition, with pots and stores of dried corn still sitting where the Anasazi left them 600 years ago. There's a half-built wall, which is very neat to see because of the ability to see the construction, and they took a huge log and threaded it through a number of buildings to bar the entrance path. You can still crouch and go under it, but it must have been an amazing amount of work.
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That closed in one is... wow. I hadn't heard of it but that's something wonderful to speculate on. Symbolism? Religion? Something bad happened partway through the moving process so they decided to leave? What a mystery.
Keet Seel sounds amazing, too.
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