Today we departed Crawford Colorado for Mesa Verde National Park. We saw the snow capped mountains.
We also got to see lots of Aspen trees.
After a couple of hours of mountains and Aspen trees we reached a relatively flat plain in southwest Colorado. The plain ended suddenly when we reached Mesa Verde National Park.
It is hard to miss some of the iconic views of mesas in the park, even before you get into the park.
By the time we arrived at Mesa Verde, we only had time to stop at the Visitor Center and then take one hike.
The trail we chose was Knife Edge. Knife Edge follows an old abandoned road bed. The road was abandoned because it was too close to the edge of the mesas and because of that it was too expensive and time consuming to be maintained. But it sure had great views.
Try to imagine a two lane road winding around these mesas. They were probably dangerous because the driver would want to see the the long distance views too.
This is the trail along the road bed. It has only been about 70 years since they abandoned the road. Look at all the rocks that are now on the road.
This was the view from the end of the trail. The mountains in the distance are about 60 miles away.
They even stopped the trail here because of the amount of rock slides.
Here is a view of the mesa near the end of the trail. Notice the cutout section that looks like a gap in the rock. Then look back at the previous picture to see where the rocks and boulders came to rest.
We looked at the fallen boulders past the end of the trail for a while. Then we realized one of the largest boulders was right next to us. It is on the left in the picture below. Like an iceberg, you can only see about 10% of it in this picture. It is about 15 to 20 feet long and about 8 feet by 8 feet for most of its length.
We looked back up at the wall before us and saw the place where the boulder had likely been before it fell. Compare the center of this picture with the next three pictures.
Notice the dark color on the boulder and compare it to the dark spot in the first picture.
Now compare the orange shading on this side of the stone with the first picture.
Finally, look at the square block at the end of the boulder with the outline on the mesa. See where the outline bulges just like the boulder does.
Our conclusion was that this boulder was located on the mesa where the outline shows it was. The amazing thing to consider is that the boulder is now about two hundred feet lower in elevation and about three hundred or four hundred feet to the west. How loud was the noise the day it fell? How did it move so far? Why can’t you see the gouges where it landed and where it rolled? Sure wish we could have seen that without getting crushed.
You can see at least three mesa points in the next photo. That is where we are headed over the next two days.
