- Guided tour of the ruins of the Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park
- Rattlesnake seen
- Drive off the South Rim Drive of the Canyon de Chelly with all its viewpoints
After a small breakfast we drive to the Cliff Palace. Our one-hour guided tour through the ruins with a ranger starts punctually at 9 a.m. The path leads down a steep path to the rock dwellings of the Anasazi Indians. The ruins are still in the shade, but up close they are even more impressive than from the plateau. Unfortunately today only the front of the building can be visited, the interest of the visitors has become too great. The ruins were not discovered until 1888 by farmers looking for their missing cows. Much has been painstakingly reconstructed so that the ruins are preserved for posterity. There is only minimal knowledge about the people living here and their culture. Much is derived from related tribes still alive today. It is assumed that the settlement at the Cliff Palace was a kind of place of choice, as there is an excessively large number of kivas - pit dwellings with a religious background. Even why the rock dwellings were abandoned a few decades after they were built is not entirely clear. Probably the plateau could simply no longer feed the growing population during a 25-year drought period. When driving back. a rattlesnake is basking in the middle of the street, I almost ran over the beautiful reptile. Then we leave the Mesa Verde National Park with new knowledge and impressions in our luggage.
After another tank and shopping stop in Cortez, we headed towards the 4-Corners-Boarder. This place is relatively well known among Americans as it is the only point in the entire country where four states border each other. The land is bone dry and in the distance you can see some Monument Valley-like table mountains in the shimmering heat. Finally we continue our journey south. Today's destination is Canyon de Chelly in Navajo Land. The Navajo Indians manage their land - a reservation - largely independently. In desolate Chilne, mostly inhabited by Navajos, we are practically there. Here the road branches off into the National Monument. Like no other park, Canyon de Chelly conveys a picture of the past and present of the local indigenous population. The park has pre-Columbian ruins and the arable land is still cultivated by the Navajo today. We drive the Südrim Road with all its viewpoints. The most impressive is without a doubt the Spider Rock. This rock needle rises in the middle of the canyon almost at the height of the plateau. We don't feel like hiking in this heat. So we're finishing work a little earlier today. While Oli is reading the travel guide, I try in vain to set up the two-person tent. It remains a mystery to me how the fly is correctly connected to the tent. We eat a salad, buy a cool drink in the local supermarket and play badminton. Soon you'll be going to bed early.
