Mammoth in Colorado Day 5

 Friday September 10

We took a trip to the round place on the hill. Very cool. 

Okay, technically it was called Chimney Rock National Monument, but I could never seem to remember the name. You start seeing it long before you get there....

The people managing it (forest service? WPA? archaeology teams?) have shored up and restored a lot of the walls, but there were no artifacts left. I asked one of the volunteer interpreters, and he said said that there were a few artifacts at "some site a little west of here with lots of similar structures" but most of them were at the Smithsonian.  So Ed and I were a little disappointed--like the archaeological site we went to in Arkansas a few months earlier, this was a case of "Washington slept here...when there used to be a house here but it burned down years ago."

We met this guy at the bottom

And a pit they left behind,

After the temperature being so cold in the morning that I had considered, and unfortunately discarded, the idea of sweatpants, it was surprisingly hot on the site. Only when we climbed near the top, 7620 feet (200 more than where we started), did a gentle breeze make us feel comfortable.  What a view up there!

 

The guide said they set signal fires that could be seen as far away as Mesa Verde. And Council Hill, is that the name?  Mesa Verde is an hour and a half away as the car drives, but as the smoke rises, I dunno. The ranger guy said there had been some Peregrine Falcons there a couple of times this spring but they hadn't stuck around. I don't know why--it seems an excellent place for them.

 

It was quite a little hike up those 200 feet to the top. There were all sorts of warnings about scary heights and no handrails, but I didn't find it all that bad. Not that I would have stood on the edge and looked down--I'm not that stupid.

It was almost two when we returned. I did a short dog walk, a quick lunch, and then attempted to jog. It was too hot for Molly and me--we jogged about ten minutes and then went on walking down the little trails along the lake. I wanted to climb down to the lake, and the distance looked quite do-able, but the idea of climbing back up just overwhelmed my imagination.