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Hosting and Toasting, 2018
  • HerbAvore
  • HerbAvore

Hosting and Toasting, 2018

Much of 2018 will be spent volunteering at Hovenweep National Monument and Canyonlands National Park and attending family weddings. In between, we will try to find a place to live. Read more
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  • Trip start
    March 30, 2018
    HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    View out the doorAnasazi pot shard, seen on the trail.Hovenweep Castle, circa 1280

    Hovenweep National Monument [Utah]

    March 30, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Hovenweep is Paiute for "deserted valley." This supposed deserted valley, however, is anything but. Eight hundred years ago it was home to a couple thousand Anasazi and they left behind dozens of astonishing towers and other structures. Their masonry skills were so perfected that their towers still stand mostly unrestored while those built by their brethren 100 miles away have crumbled.

    Anyway, over the next two months Hovenweep will be our home as we share what we learn as campground hosts.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Lorraine sitting amid El Cajon, one of six pueblos in the Monument
    Note the fine masonry joining boulder and "brick."Original support beam carbon dated to 1268Note that the structure in the center is built atop a free-standing giant boulder.

    Rooms with a View [Hovenweep]

    March 31, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    As noted, the Anasazi were remarkable masons. And the ones at Hovenweep were the best of the best. They shaped and fitted stone walls together almost seamlessly. See the one picture here that shows the melding of bolder and "brick." Most of the structures around Hovenweep were built in a 50-year period beginning around 1225 and then abadoned by 1300 due to a decades-long drought. The lessons of climate change we ignore at our own peril.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Gravity- and centuries-defying structure at Holly Pueblo
    Note the tilted structure on the left. Boulder on which it was built cracked away

    Holly Pueblo [Hovenweep]

    April 1, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We hiked four miles up a nearby canyon to Holly Pueblo, which is one of six villages in the Hovenweep Monument. The hike began with us squeezing through a very tight cracked rock. Then we walked through what's called a great sage plain up to the head of a canyon where more stunning masonry awaited. The pictures speak volumes.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler

    Hopi perspective [Hovenweep]

    April 2, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today we visited two more of the Hovenweep pueblos-- Hackberry and Horseshoe. While these are certainly impressive strctures the highlight of the hike was chatting with a Hopi Indian who does stabilization work for the Park Service. He took us behind the barrier chains and talked about how NPS hires Native Americans to use modern materials (an acrylic resin) to stabilize their ancestor's pueblos. Herschel said his people have mixed feelings about intervening in how nature returns these structures to the Earth. But he personally thinks it's a good thing that future visitors will be able to appreciate the work of his ancestors. He also showed us pictographs, a spring seep and structures not accessible to the public. A real treat.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Cutthroat Pueblo
    Note the faded hand print, upper center.See where the pueblo roof beams inserted into the rock

    Cutthroat Pueblo [Hovenweep]

    April 4, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    One of Hunt's former managers liked to say "you are the people you meet and the things you read." [Unlike a certain addled president who just watchesTV.] So in addition to the parks we visit our greatest joy is meeting visitors or staff. There's the Hopi preservationist, the high school science teacher from Montana who every spring break brings a bus load of students down here or the couple from Wales who straightened me out about Welsh history.

    Earlier today we also hiked to two more Pueblo ruins. Good stuff.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Swirl petroglyph is thought to represent the cycle of life
    Tower directly above the petroglyph galleryPictograph of a hand made about 1250. Artist blew pigment onto a hand placed over the rockHovenweep orientationCrack in the rock trail

    Graffiti or a life story? [Hovenweep]

    April 9, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Took a break from camp hosting duties today. We joined a troop of ranger trainees for the day as they toured various ancestral Pueblan structures at Hovenweep. What made this memorable was a hike down a seldom-used, restricted trail to view some special "graffiti."

    Most of what we see at Hovenweep are pictographs-- rock paintings. What are not readily accessible to the public here are the petroglyphs-- etched images. There are far fewer of them and thus in need of extra protection.

    Beholding the petroglyphs is only half the fun. Figuring out what they mean can consume careers. Today's graffiti artists are mere childish amateurs compared to the Ancients. These guys (gals?) could condense their life story into a couple of striking symbols.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler

    Mortarfied [Hovenweep]

    April 11, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    So we have to amend an earlier posting. Turns out there has been more structure stabilization here than we previously believed. At Cajon they used concrete in the 1950s but with poor results. One of the rangers took us down to a ledge below the surface pueblo to show us how techniques have changed. Also got to see some additional rock art. Bottom line is Hovenweep is still one of the best preserved collection of pueblos. Most of the iconic sites like Chaco and Mesa Verde have been extensively restored.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Rock album cover of Susan and Donn Hicks and Lorraine
    Kiva divingLorraine descends into a reconstructed kiva.Storks or cranesBuffalo and elk, likely etched by Utes several hundred years ago. Also, riders and horses.Where's Waldo the turkey?

    Good Petroglyphs Hunting [Cross Canyon]

    April 19, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    With friends visiting from Durango we took a day off to explore two nearby canyons known for their petroglyphs and Anasazi ruins. Cross and Montezuma Canyons are only a few miles from Hovenweep but run diagonally away from it for about 40 miles. So we piled into Susan and Donn Hicks' truck and headed down the dusty, cattle strewn dirt road.

    As we have learned on several previous goose chases, hunting for evidence of the Anasazi is best done with knowledgeable friends and/or very precise directions. We had both.

    It was a wonderful day of discovery.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Claret cup cactus
    Two holes to the left of the door mark the solstices with targeted sunlight to inside wallsFaded midget rattlesnake poses for touristsPrairie rattlesnake in camo. Pic taken from 3 feet away. Look dead center of the picture.Baby faded midget rattlesnake, about 3 inches.

    Celestial seasonings [Hovenweep]

    April 22, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    One thing we've learned from being here only a few weeks is that it's a challenge to identify seasons. It's often below freezing at night but rarely snows. Days can be warm and pleasant but the vegetation looks pretty much the same year round.

    It's no wonder that the Anasazi built calendars into their structures. Hovenweep Castle has summer and winter solstice windows accurate to within a couple days per year.

    There are a few flowering plants to signal spring. The claret cups shown here are just now blossoming. Also emerging are the midget faded rattlesnakes. Biting bugs will signal that summer has arrived and it's time for us to leave.

    PS. I went out hours later to check if the "morning" rattlesnake had departed a commonly used trail. He had. But two others now lurked a few feet away. A veritable rattlesnake rookery.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    A fairly smooth stretch of the road but too steep to bike. Note pueblo in far background.
    Structure sequestered under an overhang.Navaho dogies

    Poor man's SUV [Holly Pueblo]

    April 28, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We ditched the hiking routine and rode our folding [Lorraine calls them gerbil] bikes six miles up to Holly Pueblo. The last two miles are a dusty, rock-strewn road barely navigable for SUVs. But we made it the whole way and didn't hit a single cow.

    One of the real treasures and pleasures of these pueblos is that if you stare long enough you see little erroded structures emerge from the rock.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Mesa Verde descendant of Anasazi domesticated turkey
    From diorama at Mesa Verde NPLowry Grand Kiva with inlaid equinox figureLowry Grand KivaPueblo at Lowry protected by metal structure

    Lowry Pueblo [Dolores, Colo.]

    May 1, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Took a mini road trip today, visiting two restored pueblos and kivas and capping the day with a turkey talk.

    We started by visiting Lowry Pueblo which is a cluster of restored adobes and one of a handful of restored grand kivas in the Four Corners area. Nearly all kivas have filled with ruble since being abandoned 750 years ago so it's thrilling to see what they probably looked like.

    We also visited another partially restored kiva at Escalante near Dolores, Colo.

    For the evening we took in a talk on Anasazi turkey domestication given to a chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society. My grandfather always referred to the bird on the table at Thanksgiving as a "Mexican buzzard." How right he was. Domesticated in Mexico and migrated north.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Sipapu Bridge from above
    1Lorraine from aboveLorraine from below, Kachina Bridge aboveLorraine at Horsecollar ruin which, BTW, was a very scary climb up from the valley floorTwo goats petroglyph from Kachina Bridge1Hunt from below Owachomo Bridge

    Bridge Bagging [Natural Bridges NM]

    May 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We began our ten-mile bridge bagging quest by gazing down on the second largest natural span in the world-- Sipapu Bridge. Surreal! We then descended steeply down to the valley floor using some sketchy hand bars, etched toe holds, and wooden ladders that OSHA clearly hasn't inspected in decades.

    After marveling at the gabillion ton span we headed downstream to find the next one-- Kachina Bridge. This one offered a bonus in that it's base was festooned with petroglyphs.

    Then it was on to the last one-- Owachomo Bridge. Along the way we espied another gallery of petroglyphs and a ruin high up from the valley floor.

    Really an amazing afternoon to see so many natural and man-made wonders in such a lush concourse.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Hunt's immitation of an Anasazi mason
    Eloi and Norman, two Hopi masonsJonathan, NPS mason demonstrating how to remove old mortar

    Mud Slinging [Hovenweep]

    May 15, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    A Park Service team consisting of three Hopi Indians and one white guy has been working this month stabilizing Hovenweep Castle. Hunt was walking by one day, asking about their work and they said, why don't you join us. So he spent this afternoon "throwing mud," as they called it. A very special kind of mud made of local sifted soil and hydrated with an acrylic polymer.

    He started the stint by picking away at loose mortar in a section. After that was brushed clean and sprayed with water he pressed mud the consistency of Play-Doh into the cracks. Satisfying work. And probably the only accomplishment in his entire life that will still be around in hundreds of years.

    The team asked him to come back next week. He will.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Anasazi granery
    Mr. Gopher snakeWhiple's fishhook cactus

    Granary [Hovenweep]

    May 19, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Lorraine struck out off the beaten path yesterday to look for ruins in a nearby canyon. Her walk-about earned her a granary sighting. The next day she lured Hunt up the canyon to let him check it out. We climbed up to the alcove holding the ruin and learned that it has been quite well discovered many years ago. Its base had been shored up with concrete and a gaping hole suggested that it had been emptied of anything of value.

    All was not lost as we also ran across a huge gopher snake. Helped explain why there were no deer in the area.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Valley of the Gods from Muley Point
    Valley of the Gods from the ground upThe 100-mile gazeMexican Hat's namesake1Need we say moreRam playing a tune

    Unearthly [Valley of the Gods, UT]

    May 23, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Took a day-trip to see the nearby supposed sister to Monument Valley. You know, the one where John Ford shot all his westerns and made the Duke famous. Anyway, Valley of the Gods is no B-grade movie set. It is every bit as stunning in its own way. Monument Valley has a few iconic pillars but Valley of the Gods has this amazing depth to it that might give Grand Canyon a run.

    We also stopped in nearby Mexican Hat (home to Wasatch microbrewery) and at Sand Island, which has hundreds of petroglyphs going back thousands of years.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Collared lizardWhipple's fishhook cactusRanger Paula and LorraineStronghold HouseSunset over Hovenweep

    Hove VC 783

    May 26, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    With this posting we sign off from our two months at Hovenweep using their call sign and ours (783). It has been a marvelous and rewarding experience as we have met so many engaging visitors and seen so many cultural and natural wonders.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Mt Wheeler, 13,000-plus feet
    A distant desertHunt's Georgia O'Keefe knock-off; prickly poppiesMule's earsGobblers

    Catchup [Great Basin NP]

    May 29, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Lorraine finally got to visit Great Basin National Park in Nevada after detouring from our road trip last fall for knee surgery. Definitely worth the wait as this park offers one surprise after another in the midst of the Nevada desert-- snow in June, lush mountain hillsides, a glacier, abundant wildflowers, scant numbers of campers.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Lorraine plows through a morainSue, Hunt and BarbElliot meets the family matriarch

    High Ice [Great Basin NP]

    June 5, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    After a blitz trip to Reno to see Hunt's mom, introduce her to her only great grandson, Elliot, and his mom (Sarah) and attend his nephew's wedding we headed back to Great Basin NP. The main goal was to take a pilgrimage to see the highest elevation grove of bristle cone pines and the lowest latitude glacier in North America. Hunt had seen both last August but this time around the glacier approach was downright technical as we plowed through multiple snowfields to reach the moraine holding the glacier.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler

    10 Artisan Ct [Durango, CO]

    June 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    As many of you know we've been house-hunting in Durango. In April we made an offer on a home that subsequently fell through when the seller decided she didn't want to move after all.

    After seeing at least two dozen scrapers and over-priced fixer uppers we had about given up. Then one came on the market that fit most of our requirements-- walkable-bikable to town, recently build, open floor plan, not too big, nice upgrades, eco-certified, etc. We grabbed it.

    So the home closed June 7 and we are headed east to supervise the moving company.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Living history day participant of suspicious authenticity. No, the peacock.

    Bent's Old Fort NHS [La Junta, CO]

    June 8, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 30 °C

    More forts and sand dunes. Visited Bent's Old Fort Natl Historic Site, locale of the largest Outpost when the Santa Fe Trail was in it's heyday. The paparazzi would have been ecstatic with all the celebrity frontiersmen that passed through here. The adobe fort is completely and accurately rebuilt and we were lucky enough to visit on a living history day with dozens of characters in costume.

    Also swung by Great Sand Dunes NP. Glad it's there but we're not beach people.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Valley where the massacre took place. Only Native Americans can go down there.
    Well stocked quartermaster store at Ft. LarnedOfficer's qtrsWhere can you buy so many bread loaf props?

    Sand Creek Massacre NM

    June 10, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We knew this site would be a head shaker. The Sand Creek massacre and mutilation of over 200 women, children and elderly by Colorado militia in 1864 is well known to US history buffs. Almost as reprehensible was that the US government investigated, found fault but that's it. There were no consequences. The one silver lining was that the commanders of two militia companies showed great personal courage and ordered their troops not to fire. One of those officers was shot in the back a few months later.

    Also visited Fort Lerned, basically a monument to the dedication of its superintendent of the past 40 years. This man almost single handedly restored this site to a fully stocked Army post of 1870.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    To gain approval for Preserve status local ranchers severely restricted the number of bison allowed
    Token buffaloNative grasslands, sustained by fire and grazing.

    Tallgrass National Ranching Preserve

    June 11, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We've encountered very few sites where the NPS has sold out to the highest bidder. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is one. Their mission here is to preserve the last remnant of original grassland that once covered most of the plains. And what large ungulate traversed those plains by the millions? Wrong, bison breath. Apparently, it was beef cattle. There is a small token buffalo heard here but the big donors to Tall Grass are ranchers and they wanted this grasslands feel good story to showcase the cattleman's way of life.Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Parade ground at Ft Scott
    George Washington Carver statueWilson's Creek BattlefieldFinding peace at Wilson's Creek Battlefield

    Catchup [KS, MO]

    June 12, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We've been far more disconnected than usual of late. Our sprint east included three historical stops in one day: Fort Scott, known mostly as an important outpost for travelers headed toward the Santa Fe trail. [But remembered indelibly by us as the the scene of a lynching witnessed by a young George Washington Carver.]

    Then it was on to George Washington Carver's boyhood home, just across the Kansas border into Missouri. While Carver is well known for his peanut work it's the formative influences growing up orphaned and in extreme poverty that are most remarkable.

    Final stop of the day was another battlefield-- Wilson's Creek. This site south of the Missouri state capital witnessed yet another bloody defeat by the Union early in the war.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    Quote from William Seward upon Lincoln's death
    One of a half-dozen sculptures commemorating Lincoln's lifeGrant home outside St Louis. Yes, that was its original color.Truman home in Independence, MO.

    Decency [IN, MO]

    June 28, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We began the year with George Washington's call for tolerance for all religions in his letter to a Jewish synagogue in Newport, RI. On our trip back west we visited the homes of three US presidents who exemplified decency-- something so bereft in our current president that we are sometimes embarrassed to call ourselves Americans.

    Lincoln lived only twelve years at this farm in Indiana and not much from his days there survives but its formative influences are clear. He learned empathy from his mother who tended to ailing neighbors until she herself died of milk fever. There are also the other well-known trademarks-- learning to read by candlelight, spin yarns, perseverance and the value of hard work.

    Grant's "home" outside St. Louis was actually owned by his slave-holding father-in-law. Grant lived there in the 1850s, witnessing the horrors of slavery and frequently engaging in heated arguments with his wife's father. During this period Grant also freed his only slave.

    Truman's "home" also belonged originally to his in-laws but he called it home almost his entire adult life. One of Truman's favorite aphorisms was “I tried never to forget who I was and where I came from, and where I was going back to.” Maybe humility and decency come from living with your in-laws.    Read more

  • HerbAvoreHosting and Toasting, 2018Traveler
    From the monument to George Rogers Clark and the battle at Vincennes
    St Louis Arch/wicket through which Americans passed headed west.Old Antebellum Courthouse in St Louis. Witness to much history, including the Dred Scott decisionHomestead cottage from 1880 in Nebraska

    Manifest Apropriation [IN, MO, NE]

    June 29, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    As we worked our way west from Virginia the predominant theme at the first few stops was westward expansion. The battlefield at Vincennes, IN celebrated a victory by George Rogers Clark and his Patriots over the British in 1779. The dramatic century-old murals at the monument, however, portrayed the victory as pivotal to securing a foothold for westward expansion.

    In St Louis we visited the newest National Park-- Gateway Arch NP. This park tries to balance celebrating how the west was won with the cost to Native Americans.

    The final stop in this triptych was Homestead National Monument of America. This site celebrated the rugged individualism of pioneers who staked their future on land grants of 160 acres.    Read more

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