Canton Lake’s Sandy Cove Recreation Area was our first camping stop on our 4 week western trip in 2009. It was an early enough stop for some leisurely relaxation. It also provided a wonderful setting for a glorious sunset – and plenty of photos!
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Financial woes of another state budget could result in more park closures. An Associated Press report in Business Week says funding proposed in Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s budget recommendations could prevent a new state park from opening as scheduled and force the closing of other parks.
"We’re going to have to make some tough decisions because we don’t want to thin the soup any more," Johnson said. "It will mean shutting down the parks that don’t have as high visitation so we have the resources to maintain those parks that have higher visitation."
Johnson said the cut would mean the state parks won’t be able to hire maintenance workers, rangers, workers for fee collection stations and other employees needed to run all the parks. Johnson said his office would look at park closures and more limited hours, but he said it was too early to say which parks would be shuttered.
Read the Buisness Week article: Parks chief: La. gov’s budget would force closures.
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September 15, 2009 – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
On our last full day in Colorado, we toured the six-mile Mesa Top Loop Drive, visiting most of the archeological exhibits and overlooks.
Square Tower House cliff dwelling is named for the four-story-high structure standing against the curved back wall of the alcove. About 60 of the original 80 rooms of Square Tower House remain.
All of the cliff dwellings, including Square Tower House, were part of the final Mesa Verde building phase. People lived here between AD 1200 and 1300.
Small lizard on a ruin wall
After spending the morning among the ruins, we took a drive in the afternoon. At one point, we found ourselves on open range, with the road blocked by a herd of horses. As I very slowly eased the car forward, the horses parted and let us through.
image and information from September 15, 2009
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Pithouse – For thousands of years, native peoples were living in the surrounding areas before coming to Mesa Verde. As with people all over the Southwest, Ancestral Puebloans lived in modest dwellings — shallow pits dug into the ground, covered with pole and mud roofs and walls, with entrances through the roofs.
In this excavation (above), what appears to be one pithouse is actually two. The larger one, built first, around AD 700, was destroyed by fire. The smaller one, which looks like an antechamber to a larger room, is actually a second pithouse built soon after the first one burned. It contains a new feature, a verticle ventilator shaft in one side, which appears in pithouses from then on — innovation!
Above is an Ancestral Puebloan kiva – an undeground religious room. The small circular hole in the floor is a sipapu, a symbolic entrance into the underworld – the Pueblo place of origin. This early kiva design was continued in the Mesa Verde villages and cliff dwellings.
Many fires have swept across Mesa Verde over time. Recent fires have exposed previously undiscovered Puebloan sites.
At our campsite on our final afternoon in
Colorado, 2009.
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September 9, 2009
We’ve gone past the Black Canyon of the Gunnison several times. The first time we really stopped, though, was after it became Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, having originally been established as a national monument. This time we visited most of the easily accessible parts of the park.
From Wikipedia:
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a United States National Park located in western Colorado, and managed by the National Park Service. There are two entrances to the park; the more-developed south rim entrance is located 15 miles (24 km) east of Montrose, while the north rim entrance is located 11 miles (18 km) south of Crawford and is closed in the winter. The park contains 12 miles (19 km) of the 48-mile (77 km) long canyon of the Gunnison river. The national park itself contains the deepest and most dramatic section of the canyon, but the canyon continues upstream into the Curecanti National Recreation Area and downstream into the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.
Photos:
(click on any of the following photos to view a larger image.)
Black Canyon visitor center
The area was established as a U.S. National Monument on March 2, 1933 and made into a National Park on October 21, 1999.
Gunnison River
In the canyon
Kayakers run the river at their own risk. The Gunnison River through the National Park has claimed the lives of even the most experienced, respected kayakers. The river’s hydraulics can make self-rescue or rescue by others impossible.
Most visitors view the canyon from the south, where there are numerous overlooks, as well as a campground and trails.
a canyon overlook
Over the black canyon
The rapids within the national park are considered Class V and some sections are unrunnable. This is a very technical paddle and includes numerous long, difficult and dangerous portages. Poison ivy is nearly impossible to avoid, and can be found growing 5 feet tall along the river.
Eastern Portal - road into canyon
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image and information from September 9, 2009
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I first saw this big fellow from the road below the campground. He and ten or more other elk had moved up into the trees between the campground, which is on a lateral moraine and the Moraine Park meadows below.
I walked back up the trail to the camper to let Karen know about elk being very close to the campground and then walked a few sites down to see if I could see them again. Sure enough, there they were. This big bull elk was in the woods slowly moving up the valley.
At about the same time, I could hear a bunch of coyotes yipping off in the other direction. We had heard a some a couple of nights before, but not nearly as clearly.
Eventually the bull elk bedded down for the day. I guess they are most active at night with their feeding and breeding. The meadows are closed to the public from 5 PM to 7 AM during the rutting season. The closure started the first week of September.
Where this guy decided to bed down was pretty neat, too — right below our campside. I took the picture of our camper below from the same spot that I shot the image above.
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Update: Arizona State Parks to Close
January 16, 2010
According to major news sources, including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, major budget shortfalls in Arizona will result in the closure of 13 state parks by June. Eight others have already been closed.
The Los Angeles Times:
The New York Times:
The Washington Post:
In a Huffington Post editorial, Chad Campbell, the House Democratic Whip in the Arizona State Legislature, describes the reappropriation of a quarter of a million dollars meant for state parks:
It’s ironic that, in today’s rough economic times, state parks are being closed. During the Great Depression, construction of state parks provided need work for thousands of young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
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