December 2009

Arizona State Parks to close?

December 23, 2009

Update – January 16, 2010: Arizona State Parks to Close 13 more parks by June

According to the Arizona State Parks Foundation, a special session of the State Legislature has cut funding for the state parks system to the point all parks will close. The cuts are part of a $205 million budget reduction to mitigate an estimated $1.5 billion budget deficit. In an Urgent Call to Action, the foundation is asking for help.

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URGENT CALL TO ACTION! The Arizona State Legislature has acted on House Bill 2001. It eliminates the ability of our Arizona State Parks system to operate. All parks will ultimately close as a result of this action. If you or your children wish to ever visit such extraordinary places like Kartchner Caverns State Park, Tonto Natural Bridge State Park or Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, you must act today. It is our last hope. Call, email or write (sample letter at right) Governor Jan Brewer and urge her to veto the parks cuts listed in the article below. Phone: 602-542-4331 or 800-253-0883 Email via Governor’s Contact page at: www.governor.state.az.us/Contact.asp Mail: The Honorable Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, 1700 West Washington, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Read more at the Arizona State Parks Foundation website. This post is also being simultaneously published on rv.exit78.com and Haw Creek

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Mesa Top

December 18, 2009

September 15, 2009 – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

On our last full day in Colorado, we toured the six-mile Mesa Top Loop Drive, visiting most of the archeological exhibits and overlooks.

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Square Tower House cliff dwelling is named for the four-story-high structure standing against the curved back wall of the alcove.  About 60 of the original 80 rooms of Square Tower House remain.

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All of the cliff dwellings, including Square Tower House, were part of the final Mesa Verde building phase.  People lived here between AD 1200 and 1300.

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Small lizard on a ruin wall

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After spending the morning among the ruins, we took a drive in the afternoon.  At one point, we found ourselves on open range, with the road blocked by a herd of horses.  As I very slowly eased the car forward, the horses parted and let us through.

Commentary and images from the road

image and information from September 15, 2009

This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About

Pithouse – For thousands of years, native peoples were living in the surrounding areas before coming to Mesa Verde.  As with people all over the Southwest, Ancestral Puebloans lived in modest dwellings  — shallow pits dug into the ground, covered with pole and mud roofs and walls, with entrances through the roofs.

pithouse

In this excavation (above), what appears to be one pithouse is actually two.  The larger one, built first, around AD 700, was destroyed by fire. The smaller one, which looks like an antechamber to a larger room, is actually a second pithouse built soon after the first one burned.  It contains a new feature, a verticle ventilator shaft in one side, which appears in pithouses from then on — innovation!

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Above is an Ancestral Puebloan kiva – an undeground religious room.  The small circular hole in the floor is a sipapu, a symbolic entrance into the underworld – the Pueblo place of origin.  This early kiva design was continued in the Mesa Verde villages and cliff dwellings.

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Many fires have swept across Mesa Verde over time.  Recent fires have exposed previously undiscovered Puebloan sites.

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At our campsite on our final afternoon in
Colorado, 2009.

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