Day 14 - Wednesday 7/13/2005 -  Avoiding the plague...well...like the plague...

Normally one needs to visit a third-world nation (or at least my college dorm room) to be exposed to Bubonic Plague.  Plague is just one of the many experiences that awaits you in America's National Parks!  On our arrival yesterday we were briefed on contact with rodents and other small mammals (midgets?) that might carry the Bubonic Plague.  They have a number of cases that have been reported in the southwest (not just in the NP's), and it is often carried to man by way of fleas.  By the time I was done I had a coat of "OFF" on my legs that looked like Penzoil 30-weight.

Hunter and I also figured out our car troubles.  On the way to Durango we had hit a raven at 70mph.  It hit the front of the car, tumbled over the windshield, and "thumped" on the cartop carrier as it cleared the roof.  (We hoped it wasn't alive, lodged between the carrier and the roof).   The ancient spirits must have thought a leaky manifold gasket in a Pontiac Montana is appropriate modern-day retribution for offing a raven.  Or...it could have been when we kicked away the burial stones to smooth out a place for the tent...

No matter.  We awoke early, packed up, and went up for "all you can eat" pancakes at the park store.  I found that when pancakes are half-cooked and soggy, three is my limit.  Many more and I would have been into the "all you can keep down" gray area.  After breakfast we headed down for the tour of "Cliff Palace".

Cliff Palace is the largest discovered cliff dwelling in the world.  There seem to be as many mysteries as answers surrounding this site. The Anasazi Indians (translated as "Ancient Enemies" in Navajo) built the cliff dwellings between 1200 and 1280 AD.  Mysteriously they left around 1300 and moved south.  No one knows why.  Our guide suggested it could have been drought, disease or over hunting in the area.  I thought of suggesting that maybe their WIC ran out, but figured he would be non-plused with the idea.

After the tour, we drove back through the mesas and into Cortez for groceries.  I snapped a great pic of a Cortez Police car (below).  It says a lot about an area when they choose to paint flames on constabulary vehicles instead of mundane phrases like "To protect and Serve".  Next they will probably add, "If this cop car's a rockin'..."

On to Canyonlands NP.  This park is very different in that you drive INTO the canyon.  As you drive, the canyon gets deeper and wider.  On the way we passed Newspaper Rock, where ancient petroglyphs are etched into the stone (NOTE: I discovered today that petroglyphs and pictograms differ in the way they are created.  One is painted and the other is chipped)  We drove through the park and took the cool pics you see below.

From there it was on to Moab where we are camping for two nights.  The day was blazing hot (especially in the canyon) but the night has turned cool and very comfortable.