We read that pancakes were served each morning at Knife Edge Café at the entrance to the campground, and we thought we should take advantage of it. Then we took off on an amazing drive around the park.
nice outside area, but why “Knife Edge”?
Wish we had shared an order; they were thick but oh so good!
Knife Edge Road
Our first stop as we started exploring after breakfast was this sign about Knife Edge Road (sounds nerve wracking, doesn’t it):
So the name of the cafe came from this road; sounds like quite a story.
First automobiles coming to the park; Mancos is about 8 miles away, and we can now drive this distance in around 10 minutes
clearing the road in the 1920s (sorry the picture is so hard to see)
work crews clearing the park road in the 1930s, just like today—a challenge
This was our view of Knife Edge Road as we were coming to the spot where we were standing at the sign and where it took off around the mountain.
Driving to the spot where we stopped to learn about the road.
And this is the road as it takes off to follow the steep side of the mountain. I don’t like the drop-off on the left.
Good to go from dirt and gravel to asphalt!
The tunnel built in 1957 straightened out the road and removed the precarious access to Mesa Verde.
And that’s just the start of our drive!
highest point in the park
Our first step was the fire lookout tower at the highest point in the park.
Park Point’s fire lookout tower is at the highest point in the park: 8572 feet. A short, gentle trail leads us to the fire tower, and we could see forever. On a clear day, the 4 states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah can be seen
fire tower
inside
Since visibility can be up to 100 miles, many agencies depend on the fire tower, as well as private landowners.
In earlier years, the tower was staffed 24/7 during fire season. Spotters would live, eat, and sleep in this one-room building. Today it’s staffed during high fire danger periods May through September (we didn’t see anyone in July though). Spotters have been here for over 70 years.
lookout was built in 1939 by the CCC
rangers sharing view with visitors in 1958
views
These views were so beautiful that I just had to share all of them with you.
And then there were the wildflowers.
actually this is an oak leaf type of plant
wildfires in Mesa Verde
ecology in this area has been shaped by wildfires
Nearly 70% of the park has been burned by wildfires since 1906 when the park was established; this map shows the different fires and the land affected.
While fires burn everything in their paths, nature quickly grows back as you’ve seen the trees and bushes in the pictures.
We all know that fires aren’t all bad. Park rangers have found that previously unknown and undocumented sites became visible when the fire removes all of the brush and trees covering them. This picture shows the outline of a mesa-top pueblo.
geology
About 90 million years ago, much of North America was covered by a shallow inland sea (left side of next picture). Thousands of feet of marine and shoreline sediments were deposited and now form the rocks of Mesa Verde: shale, sandstone, coal, and siltstone.
Within the last 65 million years, the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains were formed by a series of uplifts that gradually raised the land thousands of feet above sea level.
Erosion probably kept pace with the uplift as streams flowed south and west from the rising La Plata and San Juan Mountains. These ancient streams cut deep canyons across the gentle slopes of Mesa Verde, dissecting it into the smaller, finger-like mesas on the southern end of the park.
Remember seeing this picture in the previous post? It shows the finger-like mesas separated by the deep canyons.
Over millions of years, the Mesa Verde formations were raised almost 8000 feet and gently tilted to the south. These same sedimentary rocks eroded off the uplifted mountains, leaving a 1500-foot escarpment between Mesa Verde and the La Plata Mountains.
water
Since we’ve talked about fire, let’s turn to water. Through rain, especially during the monsoon season, it seeps through the sandstone until it gets to non-porous shale when it then moves sideways, emerging eventually (years) through a canyon wall and forms a seep spring.
Without permanent lakes or streams on Mesa Verde, seep springs are as essential to life today as they were to the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here for over 700 years.
The Ancestral Pueblo people probably knew where every seep spring was. They often managed the flow of water by carving small depressions into the shale floor, creating channels and small ponds from which to collect the water.
Navajo influence
At the end of the day when we were our way to get some iced tea and a snack, we came across a couple of signs that showed us how helpful the Navajos have been to what we’re seeing at Mesa Verde. They deserve a big Thank You!
In the 1920s and 1930s, Navajo laborers constructed buildings, trails, roads, and other park facilities. As they worked, they shared their traditions and stories with park staff, helping the staff get to know the area better.
The present Navajo Reservation borders and encompass a number of prehistoric sites now under the care of the National Park Service. Many tribal members continue to work here and help to interpret and take care of these sites.
Stabilization crews were mostly made up of Navajo masons who worked through the Southwest.
Here they are stabilizing a small cliff at one of the sites.
time for a break
Before going home for the day, we stopped here for some iced tea and a snack. We enjoyed reviewing the day and looking at the far view, not realizing what the term meant here at Mesa Verde. We found the answer to that question on our last day here (post to come).
Our second night at Mesa Verde, the ranger’s talk was about the skies, the stars, and the planets. One highlight was being able to see the International Space Station (ISS) “sail” across the sky. So glad our ranger knew when it was going to be available for us to see!
