Cliff Dwellings

"Montezuma Castle" and "Montezuma Well" are complete misnomers.  The former is a remarkably well-preserved cliff dwelling (not a castle) built and later abandoned by the pre-Columbian Sinagua people (not the Aztecs).  The latter is not a well, but a huge natural reservoir of fresh water created by a collapsed limestone cavern.  They are both part of a large network of caves, pit houses, cliff dwellings, and pueblos that were inhabited by the now vanished Sinagua people from ca. 800 until ca. 1400.

We visited these sites on our way home from California.  They are located just off I-17 about 45 miles south of Flagstaff, Arizona.  Montezuma Castle is a beautifully built masonry structure built into a cave opening high up on a limestone cliff.  It consists of about 20 rooms and once housed around 200 people.  The cliff overlooks a tree-filled valley watered by an all-seasons creek.  The people farmed fields that they irrigated with a system of canals and ditches.  They also hunted large and small game, fished, mined salt, raised cotton, and traded with neighbors.

Montezuma Well lies a few miles to the north.  It is fed by a spring that delivers more than 1.5 million gallons of fresh, warm water every day.  It is 370 feet in diameter and 125 feet deep.  No fish can live in the water because it is too rich in carbon dioxide, but the water has supported human life for centuries.  The cliffs around the huge basin have cave dwellings, masonry cliff houses, and the ruins of a stone pueblo up on the rim.  An irrigation ditch leading from the Well is more than 1000 years old.  The water flowing from the Well is still crucial to livestock and farming operations in the valley.

Here are a few pictures:
Montezuma Castle and Well

On the Beach

No description necessary:  Three short videos of TEDDY romping on the beach at Morro Bay.

For a Waterdog, he is not very fond of the water, but he loves to chase those seabirds!

https://picasaweb.google.com/115513772064488057894/MorroBayBeach

Grand Canyon & Elephant Seals

We're on a ROAD TRIP!

Our first day on the road took us to the Grand Canyon.  We were at the GC years ago when Will was in Middle School.  On that trip, JD, Will, and Steve hiked down the Kaibab Trail to the canyon floor, had a picnic at Phantom Ranch, and then climbed back out via a dark and icy Bright Angel Trail.  This time, Sue, Teddy, and I were content to walk along the rim in the evening and then explore it again the next morning.  It goes without saying that the view is absolutely breathtaking.  These pictures can't begin to do it justice.  Teddy was less impressed with the view than with his close encounters with deer and elk.

Our destination was Morro Bay on the Central Coast of California.  Susie found us a beach house, and Will and Maya drove up from Los Angeles to join us.  Our first day trip took us to a beach just north of the Hearst Castle at San Simeon.  The beach is a famous breeding ground for elephant seals.  The narrow sand beach was populated by thousands of seals.  The bulls reach a length of about 15 feet and can weigh almost 7000 pounds.  The females are much smaller, weighing in at about 2000 pounds.  Many of the females were nursing newborn pups, which weigh about 60-80 pounds at birth.  The variety of sounds they produce is indescribable.  Teddy was VERY interested in these enormous sea creatures and tried to converse with them.

Here are a few pictures and videos of two different landscapes in two days:  the Grand Canyon and the sea elephant breeding grounds:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115513772064488057894/GrandCanyonSeals

Bosque del Apache

The Bosque del Apache is a 57,000 acre wildlife refuge just south of Socorro, New Mexico.  It lies in the woods and wetlands adjacent to the Rio Grande.  So far this season, birdwatchers have counted 377 species of birds in the refuge.  The area is also home to deer, bobcat, javelina (aka, peccary), coyote, and mountain lion.

We took Teddy down to the Bosque on Wednesday morning.  He loved it, but he was frustrated because he had to stay in the car.  What he REALLY wanted to do was jump out and chase birds. 

We saw countless duck and waterfowl of every kind.  A pair of bald eagles.  Golden eagles and many hawks.  Canada geese.  Thousands and thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese that had migrated all the way from the Arctic.  And as a footnote, a buck and several doe mule deer.

Here are a few pictures and two short videos.
https://picasaweb.google.com/115513772064488057894/BosqueDelApache

Max & Teddy = BFF

Max is the big brown lab who lives across the street from us with Glenn and Nita Hughes.  He and Teddy are absolute best buddies.  If we call Max's name, Teddy will sprint across the street to his front door.  We sometimes take Max with us on hikes or invite him for sleep-overs at the house in ABQ or up at the cabin.  It also so happens that Max is crazy about snow.  Here are two short videos we made of Max and Teddy when we were up at the cabin last November.

https://picasaweb.google.com/115513772064488057894/MaxTeddy

Dia de los Muertos: Marigold Parade

Sunday was the annual Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival in Albuquerque's South Valley, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.  It's a Mexican festival that is the equivalent of All Saints (November1) and All Souls Day (November 2).  It's not meant to be either sad or scary.  Instead, people get together to joyously and gratefully celebrate their memories of friends or family who have died.

Six of us from Amherst Drive marched in this year's parade to honor Glenn and Nita's dog Brooklyn who had died only a few days before.  Glenn and Nita made a fantastic float decorated with huge blown-up posters of Brooklyn, oversize marigolds, and strings of the tennis balls that Brooks loved to chase.  We all dressed up as "calaveras" (skulls) and pulled the wagon while tossing candy to the kids who lined the street.  The marigolds are thought to attract the souls of the dead so that they can enjoy the fun as well.

In addition to marchers, bands, dancers, and floats, there was also a large contingent of "low riders" -- vintage cars that have been tricked out with sound systems, sirens, hydraulic lifts, etc.  These are a huge hit with the crowd.

Here are a few pictures of us with the float and some short video clips of other marchers and low riders.

Rock Art in Rinconada Canyon

Rinconada Canyon is part of a long volcanic escarpment just west of Albuquerque.  It contains about 1200 petroglyphs pecked or carved into the dark basalt boulders.  There are no signs of permanent pueblo-type dwellings here, so the canyon was most likely a ceremonial destination for shamans seeking their spirit guides.  There are also later rock carvings and graffiti made by explorers, sheepherders, and other settlers who began arriving here after 1540.

Archeologists say that Ancestral Puebloans made most of this remarkable rock art 400 to 700 years ago.  Some may be as much as 2000-3000 years old.  Native people say they have been here since the beginning of time.  They also believe that the carvings choose when and to whom to reveal themselves.

Teddy and I were lucky that so many chose to reveal themselves to us on Saturday. Click here for a very small sample.