In which the adventure draws to a close, but with a promise of more to come...

Moominmama writes this final missive of 2021 from Rochester, NY. The Moominhouse is safely in storage just south of Durango, Colorado. Most of this past week has involved packing and cleaning, and preparing for the drive east.

But on the day the Moominhouse was in the shop for service, Moominmama took off for one last adventure in nearby Mesa Verde National Park, where the National Park Service is preserving the remarkable Pueblo architecture tucked into the rocky overhangs on the high mesas.

And high mesas they are. It is a long uphill drive from the park's visitor center up to the Chapin and Wetherill mesas where the evidence of the ancestral Pueblo homes remain. 

But arriving in the latter half of October turned out to be disappointing. Much was closed. The Spruce Tree House picture above was closed to visitors, as was the Cliff Palace Loop. Other areas could be seen only by signing up for one of a few final tours -- long ago booked up and unavailable.

So Moominmama opted for a hike on the Petroglyph trail, which took me along the edge of the cliff behind the Spruce Tree House dwellings. And there was no doubt I was hiking along a cliff!

The trail is marked as "strenuous" even though it's only 2.4 miles. What's strenuous isn't so much the trail as the degree of nerves it takes to walk so close to the edge and to climb some of the rocky faces on the way! I can only imagine what the mother of a Pueblo toddler must have felt.

And then there's the small matter of the wildlife. Like this cute, fuzzy tarantula seen en route. But the views were spectacular and there was a partial example of Pueblo construction under one of the cliff overhangs. 

There was only one area with visible petroglyphs and difficult to photograph. But very clearly, the marking of other people just like us. Shapes of the human hand, figures, circular twirls. One hiker says it looks like a prehistoric party. And he had a point!

I enjoyed passing across ground that thousands of humans had trod for centuries, oblivious to the fascination they would create for those of us to follow. The sandstone wears away and smooths out from the abrasions of our feet and hands. Some of the trails seem more like grooves. Visitors are warned not to touch and not to walk apart from the paths. 

And yet an overhang in this dry climate can provide just enough protection from the elements to preserve the past and protect it into the future.

Moominmama saw just a glimpse of this national park before having to return to reclaim the Moominhouse by the end of the work day.

It was enough for me to decide to return to Mesa Verde when I take the Moominhouse out of storage in the spring and when the National Park Service will have reopened the park's major features.

That is the trouble with travel, I've discovered. I find many more places I am curious to visit just as I think I've checked some region off my bucket list!

For example, I took a morning to hike a small section of the Colorado Trail -- a trail that runs from Durango to Denver. I did about four miles up to an area known as Gudy's Rest, where I met a woman who knew Gudy, a local woman who was one of the driving forces in creating the trail. 

My new friend had actually helped to build that section of trail in the late 1980s and early 1990s that I had just walked. There's not many opportunities to say 'thank you' to the people who create the trails we enjoy today!

So I end with the view at Gudy's Rest and with a thank-you to all the people who carved the trails I've enjoyed so much over the past eight months. I've been amazed and awe-struck at the beauty of this country. It has recharged my soul and made me eager for more. I look forward to the next chapter of Moominmama's Adventures in 2022 and hope you do too!