July 16th 2009 04:33 pm

Moto-Camping: Mesa Verde

Moto-Camping:  Mesa Verde

Day 9 was spent getting to and then hiking Mesa Verde National Park.  The photos attached to this post also include the morning of Day 10–there was too much to see!

The alcove dwellings of the ancient Pueblo (we no longer use the Navajo “Anasazi”) are fun to visit, even in the heat.  The pictures barely do justice to the structures–and being one of 50 to 60 tourists per tour, it was difficult to “feel” the place.  But I’m glad I went.

I had a great camping spot in a small grove of Utah Juniper which was both shady and a great spot to stretch the hammock a last time.  It rained so much in the Black Canyon that I slept in the tent the whole time.  It threatened to rain here, but I gave it a shot and was rewarded!  I love my backpack hammock!

I was reading an email post of “Harrison Bergeron”, that great Kurt Vonnegut story and I thought about these National Parks–so much access, made as easy as possible.  As a result, humongoloid Winnebagoes disgorge overweight white people in store-bought tie-dyed shirts, bermuda shorts, and flip-flops at the visitor centers and tour kiosks, and these people huff and puff through the sites, exclaim at the heat, balk at the 30′ ladders, get mad at their husbands for taking pictures of their butts as they climb, condescend to their children, and never, never, shut up.  Maybe, just maybe, we should not aim for the politically correct–maybe access to these sites should be harder so people will have to work at it.  Of course, Winnebagoes would go extinct, their rusty carcasses scattered through weedy, abandoned RV parks across the West.

It makes me feel worse, of course, to be 1) white and 2) overweight.

Anyway, loads of pictures.  By the way, Facebook posts these blog entries as “Notes” and the pictures are there, but you have to open them one at a time.  If you’d rather see them in slideshow or lightbox formats (easier to skim through), visit my blog: http://www.englishandmore.org/blog/

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