Mesa Verde – A quiet day for the Morgans

Yet another beautiful day in America

Mesa Verde is a flat-topped mountain bisected by a deep and relatively fertile canyon. It is also the site of a great human mystery; why after over four hundred years of continuous occupation did the Pueblo Indians suddenly leave the area to move south?

The Pueblo architecture developed from simple dwelling houses to more permanent strongly built villages on the top of the Mesa living amongst and tending a wide variety of crops. At some point they decided to build very complex and sophisticated multi-storey communities into the ledges, caves and undercrofts of the near vertical rock faces of the canyon. If you have any theories as to why the Pueblo Indians first built their incredible cliff dwellings and secondly why they left them in such an abrupt manner please send them via email to the Mesa Verde Park authorities they will be as good as anybodies over the last one hundred and twenty years since the unusual habitations were discovered by modern Americans.

There is a very instructional guided tour by bus accompanied by a Park Ranger. We descended, with a guide, to one of the cliff villages and discussed ideas as to where, what and why, but the only certainty seemed to be that doom was only a few feet away if we slipped.

Some of us decided to tour the Park in our Morgans so after tightening up all the nut and bolts that had loosened on our journey we set off for a gentle ride. The cars seemed to treat the fifty percent reduction in oxygen at the Parks altitude of eight thousand feet above sea level with great stoicism unlike their owners who gasped and wheezed with every slight excursion.

A wholly European supper to say thanks to the arranged for the cars to be road legal in the US and Canada.

Page AZ to Mesa Verde CO

Day eight of the tours was a drive of two hundred and thirty eight miles that took us past Monument Valley. Monument Valley is one of the most picturesque and photographed landscapes in North America. We passed north to south on the west side so the fabulous bright red sandstone towers were silhouetted against the morning sun. The beauty of the landmark caused us to constantly stop and admire what was before our eyes.

The red “Martian” landscape varied little as we travelled through four States (Arizona twice, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado)until we approached the Ute Mountains when the landscape erupted into a confusion of greens; it’s amazing what the odd drop of water will do!

Our hotel was next to the visitor/information centre which turned out to be a long tortuous drive on very rough roads from the Mesa Verde Park entrance.

Beer, shower, supper and bed in any order – all day in the park tomorrow.

Kanab to Page via The Grand Canyon

The highlight of the day was visiting the Grand Canyon on our way to Page Arizona. Unlike five years ago when we visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon this time we made our way to the opposite side. We drove through broad meadow land lush and green almost parkland. The road was made up of long curves, but punctuated by tight twisty corners perfect Morgan material. The North rim is a quiet place compared to the very commercial and crowded South Rim, true it doesn’t have that so dramatic, stomach curdling view straight down into the mile deep canyon, but it does have charm and a very peaceful atmosphere. The Lodge Hotel had floor to ceiling windows and an outside balcony that gave one hundred and eighty degree views across the Canyon. We did some very light hiking to various lookout points, often not for the faint hearted as rails and fencing were conspicuous by their absence.

Our journey from the North Rim to Page AZ was just over one hundred miles mostly through hot dry desert on very good roads. Five Morgans made very rapid progress to Page not all at legal speeds, but very invigorating on a hot day.

Roger and Linda Lacey caught up with us at the hotel in Page having driven over six hundred miles in one day! Their new sump behaving perfectly.

Bryce Canyon

A perfect morning, yet again, clear blue sky a little chilly in the shade and the sun lighting the western sandstone cliffs. An early start as we wanted to drive north through the mile long tunnel on highway 12 that was made in the nineteen twenties; unlit, but the engineers had the foresight to cut huge apertures into the out ward walls giving wonderful views of the canyon below. The tunnel is being refurbished and closes when work starts in the morning, but our early start got us through.

Every time we think our jaws can’t drop any further they manage another notch and Bryce Canyon continued the pattern. Bryce is about ten or so miles north to south and we drove south, without stopping, to Bryce point. From there we had a wonderful view north along the complete ridge and on a clear day it is possible to see fifty miles, but a little hazy on our day. From Bryce Point we retraced our footsteps and stopped at every viewing point looking east. The combination of sandstone, limestone and erosion have left, over millions of years, scenes of indescribable beauty that create a sense of quite awe.

Our place of rest that night was the town of Kanab, famous for being the location of many Western movies. John Wayne still haunts the town at the local cinema, which constantly runs films that were made locally; did we go to the movie theatre? No we were shattered!

Zion National Park

Zion National Park was named and farmed by Mormon settlers who also named all the major landmarks within the park so there is a strong biblical theme. Our group was taken on a tour of the park, which stopped at some of the many picturesque viewing points.

There are many activities available to the Zion Park visitor including climbing (three types), cycling, hiking and walking, we chose the latter two walks in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The beauty of Zion lies in its dramatic and colourful rock formations which appear to shoot out of the ground in vivid reds, creams and yellows.

All the Morgans are running well with the exception of Linda Canons car which has a couple of problems, but “Dasemay”, like its owner is still a strong runner.

Tonopah to Zion National Park

One of the longest daily drives we will have to do 342 miles, but one of the easiest to describe. Two thirds of the journey took place in Nevada and the last third in Utah. The Nevada stretch was dead straight roads for the most part with a rocky sage brush landscape with the occasional very rough pasture near a water source. The road is nick named the lonely highway for good reason, one can drive along stretches of road that go on for twenty or thirty miles without seeing another living creature. Highway 395 is where most alien abductions are reported, our experience of UFO activity was minimal! We did stop for coffee at the Alien Café, which has a collection of extraterrestrial artefacts and photos, which either strengthen or weaken the case for beings from space depending on your point of view.

Pauls car reached the hundred thousand mile mark with a celebratory glass of champagne.

One entering Utah the countryside becomes more verdant and the road get very busy particularly at Cedar City where we picked up the freeway to Springdale, which sits at the south end of Zion National Park.

How comfortable is a Morgan sports car in the desert? The answer is - not bad, if certain precautions are taken; drink gallons of water; apply loads of sunblock; where a hat and sunglasses; and again drink lots of water.

Two nights at the Driftwood Lodge hotel gave us a whole day in Zion NP.

Tonopah and how to get there

The morning started briskly, the routine packing and preparations. One car had been burgled during the night. The culprit although well known to the authorities was not brought to justice; he is a Raccoon who often preys on unsuspecting victims.

Our route was to take us from Yosemite to Tonopah; this took us over the Tioga Pass, which had only been cleared of snow less than a week before, to the town of Lee Vining.

Tioga Pass took us up to 10k feet, well into the snow line. There were frozen lakes, eight-foot piles of snow where the ploughs had gone through and deep lying snow under the forests of pines. The light was crystal clear and the views when the forest broke were breath taking.

Lee Vining has Mono Lake, a highly saline remnants of an inland sea. The lake has very unusual lime stone structures rising from its surface called Tufa, which are the home to amongst other things Ospreys.

It was only in Lee Vining we found out that we had, as a group, suffered our first mishap. One of the Morgans had driven over a rock on the road and badly damaged the sump; a repairable problem, but they will have drive six hundred and fifty miles to catch up.

The drive from Mono Lake to Tonopah takes the traveller through a variety of changing landscape including pasture, scrub and rough desert. The road, however, remains ruler straight for up to twenty-five miles when a slight curve interrupts and the process begins again. It is not boring; the farmsteads, barns, small towns, road signs riddled with bullet holes (some quite good grouping!). There was a town advertising hot springs that was completely abandoned.

The mileage signs to Tonopah gradually reduced the distance until we hit the city limits. Tonopah is a silver mining town that saw its peak of prosperity in the nineteen twenties. It has kept some of its old style covered walk ways and the hotel we stayed in was charming, it swayed slightly when ever a lorry went by and had out side staircases, one of which was out of use after it was badly damaged by a car running into it.

Tomorrow another adventure!