From Denver to Durango...

Life has become very busy of late, with a wonderful visit from my sister and believe it or not quite an active social life - so posting blogs has not been a priority. I have lots of wonderful images and stories to tell, but they will have to wait because we have started our massive 48 day road trip!

On the 4th of July, we skipped celebrations and began our journey, very keen to escape the heatwave that has been plaguing Denver. We really didn't expect the heat to be so full on - we have never been so glad to have air conditioning. Even so the children and I prefer to sleep in the guest bedroom in the basement because it is really the only cool place during the night.

Not only due to the heat, but also the many terrible fires that are not only burning in Colorado but many other states in the US we thought it best to change our route. So day one was a seven hour drive with rest stops through beautiful landscapes to arrive at Lightening Creek Camping Ground just outside Durango.

Max was very excited and is proving to be an excellent camper assisting his Dad in erecting our new tent.

After a lovely cool night we were ready for day 2 - a visit to the Mesa Verde. We purchased tickets for two different tours, The Balcony House and The Cliff Palace. We were warned that both hikes were physically demanding and also involved climbing a 32 foot ladder and climbing rock faces with the aid of chains. Because I have a fear of heights I was a little nervous, but I had time to collect myself during our picnic lunch. The photo of Garry was taken about twenty feet from the picnic table - what a view!

After dragging Max and Yas away from their lizard hunting we met the ranger and listened to all the rules of the tour. Again she reinforced how very high the ladders were and that it was okay to quit and return to the start if it all became to much - she was not making me feel any better about what was ahead. The first ladder which is apparently a 32 foot climb up to the top of the Balcony entrance looked much higher in real life than it does in the photo. Garry, Max and Yas flew up the ladder without a care in the world while I counted each step, took deep breaths and refused to look down.

We then entered a small chamber and climbed a small ladder to arrive on the Balcony.

What an amazing view. I still can't begin to imagine why the Pueblo Indians decided to build their homes on cliff faces and wondered about the safety of small children. The photo above is the only area that has a safety wall. As the wall is 700 years old, I preferred not lean against it - it has been reinforced with concrete but I wasn't taking any chances.

Up the small ladder and through  dark tunnel on hands and knees we arrived at the main living area with the Keva. Mesa Verde Balcony House, a “medium size” cliff dwelling, has 40 rooms. This particular archeological site illustrates how room and passageway construction evolved through time.

Yasemin and Max were not troubled by the heights and were having a great time.

I really enjoyed the tour, the ruins and views were breathtaking, Pueblo Indian life was also interesting but my legs were still shaking. To end the tour you needed to climb another series of ladders, and scale some rock face with the assistance of chains. I was keen to get back to safe ground asap.

Feeling fantastic at surviving, we had a quick ten minute break and we were ready to begin the Cliff Palace tour. It was great to have a view of the Palace from above at the start of the tour.

Even as it started to rain we were still keen to get down to the Palace.

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park. It has 150 rooms, plus an additional 75 open areas.  Twenty-one of the rooms are kivas, and 25 to 30 rooms have residential features.  The number of Ancestral Puebloans living in Cliff Palace at any one time was 100 to 120.

We finished this tour totally in awe of the Pueblo Indians, but were left to wonder why did they suddenly leave their cliff dwellings so suddenly? A half hour drive back to the National Park entrance and a stop for the final photo of the day. It was now seven o'clock at night and we were all exhausted.
We had an amazing day - what adventures will tomorrow hold?

One Last Shop in Taos...

After visiting the Pueblo it was back to the Casita for lunch and a rest. Garry, myself and the kids ventured out to visit the Rio Grande Bridge.

One of America’s highest and most famous bridges, the route 64 crossing of the Rio Grande near Tao's, New Mexico was completed in 1965. A well proportioned cantilever truss with an attractive, curvilinear profile, the bridge received the American Institute of Steel Construction’s award for “Most Beautiful Long Span Steel Bridge” of 1966. In 1997 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With its headwaters high up in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado, the Rio Grande is America’s 4th longest river, stretching 1,885 miles (3,034 km) south to the Gulf of Mexico. Located 10 miles (16 km) west of Tao's, the deep gorge of the Rio Grande is the only major rift across an otherwise flat expanse of land between the mountains of the Carson National Forest and the Sangre de Cristos.

The local vendors never miss an opportunity, so after a quick jewelry shop on the side of the road it was time to visit The Greater Earth ship World Community.

What is the Greater Earth ship World Community you might ask. The aims are;


To reduce the economic and institutional barriers between people and sustainable housing.

To begin reversing the overall negative effect that conventional housing has on the planet.

To create a less stressful existence for people in an effort to reduce the stress that they in turn place on the planet and each other.



To interface economics and ecology in a way that immediately and tangibly affects current pressing problems with existing life styles.

To provide a direction for those who want to live in harmony with their environment.

To empower individuals with the inarguable forces of nature.

To find and distribute knowledge about sustainable lifestyles.

- Produce our own energy
- Harvest our own water
- Contain and treat our own sewage
- Manufacture our own bio-diesel fuel
- Grow much of our own food
- Our buildings heat and cool themselves
- Made utilizing discarded materials of modern society

One of the objectives of this sustainable community is to demonstrate the reuse of by-products of our society. To that end, the thermally dynamic buildings are structured with earth rammed automobile tires -approved on a case by case bases in New Mexico and around the world for twenty years. Aluminum cans and glass bottles are used as bricks for minor planter walls and partitions. Hard plastic containers are ground up and mixed with pumice in the waste water treatment systems. These materials will be collected for reuse at two transfer stations located at opposite ends of the property.

It was an interesting visit and I could actually imagine building and living in one of these houses.

We then headed back to Tao's for a final walk around town and the inevitable shop.

Tao's is filled with beautiful streets, many murals and gallery after gallery.

Besides jewellery, many wonderful paintings were also for sale.

Visiting Historic Pueblo De Tao's...

Again another beautiful but very warm day and we were on our way to explore the Historic Pueblo De Tao's. Situated in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grandee, this Pueblo Indian settlement, consists of adobe dwellings, ceremonial buildings and a few teepee's. It is one of a group of settlements established in the late 13th and early 14th centuries in the valleys of the Rio Grandee. The Pueblo is currently the largest living world heritage listed site. Today about 150 people still make their homes full-time in the pueblo. Others maintain houses there but live elsewhere in more modern homes on some 99,000 acres (40,000 hectares) of Pueblo Indian land. In accordance with tradition, no electricity or running water is allowed in residences inside the adobe pueblo.

We all had a great time exploring the buildings, looking at all the interesting goods for sale and talking to the Indians. While Garry was happy to sit under a tree near the creek that runs through the Pueblo, I was in a photographic dream. I couldn't wait to get home and spend some time editing the amazing images. It was hard not to take a great shot.

Neither Nic or I could resist the amazing Indian Drums - we almost cleared the store purchasing one for each child from a third generation drum maker whose drums are exhibited in the Smithsonian.

The kids were amazing - especially baby Lara who dealt with the extreme heat without a complaint.

But my favorite part of the Pueblo without a doubt was the cemetery.

On the edges of the Pueblo their were a number of teepee's, the photograph below was taken as the clouds were rolling in.

Our visit was truly amazing - we spent around three hours inside the pueblo, but without kids I am sure I could easily have spent the entire day exploring. It was well worth the extra $6.00 Us I had to pay so that I could take photographs inside the Pueblo.