These past 2 days I have been in Cortez, Colorado. There I first went to The Canyon of the Ancients, on the hike first, where I learned all about Native American culture; their stories, their food, and their medicine. For example, I learned about how the people of The Canyon of the Ancients believed that a montain close to them, now called Ute Mountain, was actually the great warrior god, who, when fighting against the Evil Ones, got hurt, and laid down to rest, and fell into a deep sleep, and has stayed asleep since. However, one day, the great warrior god will rise again to help people fight against the Evil Ones. I found this myth extremely interesting and entertaining because it was the people’s way of telling of how things got to the way they are. An example of their medicine, is Gambel Oak, all parts of which can be used to treat insect bites and inflammation, in addition to being able to help with poison oak and poison ivy. Its acorns are also very bitter, and could be used as bitters for mock-tails. After that, I went to the museum, and I did the scavenger hunt, (I love scavenger hunts).
After the museum, I came home to the RV, and then I went boating in in the McPhee reservoir, where my mom rented a boat from Docs Marina, and I tubed 10 miles down to the dam, and later I surfed on a tube, which I would 100% recommend to anyone who loves thrills.
Today we went to Mesa Verde, which was totally worth waking up at 5:45 am for the sunrise (pictures below). The museum doesn’t open until 8:00 am, so I didn’t go there, but I visited everything that didn’t have to be staffed (i.e. pueblos, cliff dwellings, pit houses). My favorite place on Mesa Verde was Cliff Palace, which, though we didn’t get to walk around in it, was immensely beautiful and captivating, even though I was only looking across the canyon at it. Another amazing thing that I learned was that, around 1000 C.E. the peoples living there where building medieval-style castles! I thought it was very interesting that 2 peoples, oceans and continents apart, were, at the same time, building similar stile dwellings.These were the things I saw and learned in Cortez, Colorado. See you soon.
