Mesa Verde NP July 16-17

 

Somehow Mesa Verde National Park had managed to elude me until now, probably because of its location at the Colorado corner of the Colorado Plateau, furthest away from the places I usually make efforts to visit. Prior to our Rio Chama river trip we decided to tack on a couple days exploring Mesa Verde to help justify the effort to drive here. I've long enjoyed the mystery, uniqueness, and sense of place conveyed by cliff dwellings and have sought them out, particularly some of the excellent find-and-explore-yourself ones around Comb Ridge, Cedar Mesa, and Natural Bridges. The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde are some of the largest around with several complexes with more than a hundred rooms. I was interested to see these, even knowing the need for ranger-led tours, paved trails, and early 1900s reconstructions would detract from the experience. 

After a stormy night in our campsite next to Jackson Gulch Reservoir near Mancos, we drove to the park entrance station. Notably my annual parks pass just expired and I disappointingly had to purchase a new 2026 pass with Trump's self-appointed scowling face under "America the Beautiful" text. It was a rude start to trying to celebrate visiting a new national park and as I write this I can still feel the gross weight of it glaring through my wallet. We followed the park entrance road as it climbed the crest of the cuesta and then meandered in and out along the heads of the southward draining valleys. The terrain was subdued here with no cliffs in sight other than the north escarpment down to Montezuma Valley and pretty sparse remnant pinyon-juniper forest. The parched terrain was further accentuated by the scars of many significant fires over the last several decades including most notably the 2000 Bircher Fire that burned 22,000 acres, 2002 Long Mesa Fire, and 2000 Pony Fire which each showed essentially no sign of recovery. Even more than a melting glacier, this park punctuates a dramatic changing climate: flowing springs and verdant gardens that once supported thousands of people in vibrant communities now replaced by barely moist seeps and forests of lifeless blackened trunks on the desolate mesatops.

First up was our 9am tour of Balcony House. Billed as the most adventurous tour, it involved climbing a steep 30 foot-high ladder to gain the dwelling and crawling along a dark, narrow passageway to exit. It was a mid-sized village of 38 rooms and two kivas. Although the ruins themselves are on a balcony halfway up a vertical cliff, the house got its name for well-preserved adobe ledges at the front of several of the two-story buildings that were used to travel between rooms. The extensive and somewhat crude reconstruction efforts detracted some from the sights but you could still get a small sense of what it must have been like to call this cliff-clinging village home by walking through the passageways and standing on the patio between the twin roofless kivas. We clung towards the back of the tour group which allowed me to get several views without our fellow tourists. I appreciated the unrushed pace of all the tours we went on in the park.  We all agree that of the three tours we did this one felt the most intimate (like we were in it) as you could peer through small windows and have views reveal themselves at the end of dark hallways. Relatedly, I probably took more photos of this tour than the others. The kiva floors and walls were some of the best we saw (but again probably sharply reconstructed). I also enjoyed seeing the different generations of buildings and how they amalgamated to build the village. I never did get a complete explanation of how the inhabitants commuted to and from this most cliffy of cliff dwellings we visited.

A nice example of a balcony spanning multiple generations of construction

An intimate window between the two main plazas at the site

Detail of a kiva in the foreground

With time before our 11:30a tour of Cliff Palace, we drove to the museum complex for a snack and a short walk to an overlook of Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling in the park at 130 rooms and 8 kivas. In the past there was an opportunity to self-guide this ruin but the trail was closed so we had to be content viewing it across the canyon with binoculars. The most prominent feature was an impressive three-story wall containing a block of at least 8 rooms set behind a prominent kiva and plaza. A lush woodland in front of the ruins contrasted with the oranges of the cliffs and structures.

Spruce Tree House

Next up was the Cliff Palace tour which started at its overlook. Of over 600 cliff dwellings in the park, Cliff Palace is the singular one that people associate with Mesa Verde. It is the largest cliff dwelling on North America with 150 rooms and 23 kivas (an oddly large number suggesting it was an important social and ceremonial site for not just the inhabitants but others in the region and on the contemporary mesatop villages). Less a palace and more of a sprawling metropolis, it really was noteworthy for its stairstepping levels and depth towards the dark back of the alcoves. My favorite features were how some of the towers were built into the boulders and outcrop on the floor and also the now-inaccessible storage ledge well up the overhang of the cliff that was not visible from the lookout above. The tour itself was less interactive than the previous, as we largely just walked the path along the front of the ruins with a short detour to gather around one of the kivas. There was a lot going on wherever you looked with layer after layer of structures (the frontispiece highlights this nicely).

Cliff Palace (and below)

After Cliff Palace we drove the loop around Chapin Mesa checking out the roadside stops. The museum was a bust as the exhibits were closed for renovations. Towards the start we stopped at the overlook for Square Tower House, another famous and imposing structure masterfully built into the wall of the alcove. It was not until looking at my photos later that I noticed the stacked rocks on a sketchy sloping ledge ABOVE the tower- count me thoroughly impressed!

Square Tower House (and below)

Notice the stacked rocks above and left of the tower!

Like most visitors, I did not fully appreciate the extent, importance, and deeper history of the villages and pueblos on the mesatops above the cliffs. Along the driving loop were many stops to see some of these partially excavated, housed within structures to protect them from the elements. While these are much less to look at and appreciate compared to the cliff dwellings, the interpretive signs did a good job painting a more thorough picture of life on Mesa Verde 1500 to 700 years ago. At my favorite of these mesa sites was an example of three separate generations of kivas built overprinting each other with the oldest structure stratigraphically the lowest. The heavily reconstructed Sun Temple was another oddity with its combination of both rounded and squared walls. Partway through we stopped at the roadside stand to have some powdered sugar Navajo fry bread. Along some of the rim roads we could see the otherworldy spire of Shiprock erupting from the plateau a solid 45 miles to the southwest.

Three generations of overprinted kivas (left, right, then center)

Sun Temple detail

Just as thunderstorms descended on us we exited the park and caught up with my friend Jeff in Mancos. He gave us an impromptu tour of the Alpacka Raft factory which was actually really cool to see. We got to see the different machines and stations that transform the raw fabrics into hand-crafted works of modern form and function. After that we had appetizers in the local wine-and-book hangout, then a meal before returning to our campsite outside of town (dodging the many deer along the way). As continued throughout our trip, we had pleasantly cool monsoon-fueled sleeping temperatures. 

The following day we stopped at the bakery in town and then drove the longer road out to Wetherill Mesa at the far side of the park for our Long House tour. We walked the trail through a charred skeleton of a forest to our meeting site then shortly began the tour.

Long House (150 rooms, 21 kivas) is nearly equal in size to the more famous Cliff Palace but actually probably housed considerably more people based on its layout. This too had a now-inaccessible upper storage level above the dwellings. I enjoyed this tour more than Cliff Palace as we got to climb and ladder to go up into the shadows at the back of the alcove and look out. Back here was the crucial life-sustaining spring. An intricate network of carved channels in the bedrock floor leading to perfect ladle-shaped depressions was one of the more unique features we saw and was really special. It was easy to imagine people crouched over to scoop water out of this delicate water source. The spring's modern flow is clearly much less than it used to be, another clear sign of shifting climates and a more verdant pas

Long House (and below)

Carved pathways and cupules to channel drinking water from the spring

After the tour we took the short hike down to Step House near the parking lot. Though the only self-guided cliff dwelling, it had much less interest to me apart from the reconstruction of a pit house.

With that we had a brief stop at the fancy new visitor center at the park entrance (the only infrastructure at the park not in a state of decay) and drove east with a pupusa stop in Durango and then a brief stop to check out the riverside hot springs in the center of Pagosa Springs before driving on to our campsite near our Rio Chama put-in. 

Overall we had a nice day and a half in Mesa Verde, satisfied at seeing most of what is on offer for public viewing and a little deeper appreciation for life 700 years ago. I was certainly appreciative of the tours as it would be a much different experience if we were purely limited to distant overlooks. Thanks to Jeff for the catchup, apps, and factory tour.

John Day River June 13-16

This was a rare trip in that I knew next to nothing about it beforehand and would be jumping on Keith's permit. We would have 70 miles of mostly flatwater and occasional Class II riffles between Clarno and Cottonwood. Keith would be bringing a support raft and his kids would be bringing a couple friends so Heather and I jumped at the chance for this to be a mellow first multiday raft-supported river trip for her kids. I'd pack dehydrated meals I knew we would have a fairly epic lengthwise drive through California and out into north central Oregon. And that is about it. It was only later that I would find out we would be seeing lots and lots of basalt. Zora the dog came which provided some good entertainment too.

Keith, Kari, Zora, and I left the quaint and quiet Bear Hollow Campground early to start rigging the raft. We happily snagged a prime stagging spot underneath the Clarno Bridge (the shade greatly outweighed the swallow droppings). Despite this 8am start at the put-in, we still managed to not get on the water until about noon with lots of organizational shenanigans including a search for a place to fill up water. 

The river started with lots of calm and occasional riffles but 4 miles down was Clarno Rapid, the only Class III rapid on our trip. Zora seemed to have a great time jumping between different boats as long as she ultimately was not too far away from Keith. After a lead-in riffle we pulled over to scout. The rapid had a river-width line of large boulders forming a row of holes with a tongue on the left requiring quick maneuvering to avoid a rock (the kayak line) and a meatier but wider line on the right (the raft line). The consequences were not trivial and so we thought a little about how to get all our boats and people through. Long story short I ended up making three trips through the rapid. We ended up taking about an hour to get past this rapid.

Clarno Rapid (and below)

We ended our first day going only 10 miles, which set a brutal pace for the following days to make up time. As we would find out nearly all the choice camps would be taken by the time we would show up and this was the case with our first camp. Thankfully this first group was willing to share and so we slid a little further along from their main camp. The wind was wretchedly terrible. Gusts were sufficiently strong to kick up dirt and deposit sandblasted layers inside our tents all night long. Everybody slept horribly and I woke up with a very scratchy throat. And the wind continued through day 2. We needed to make some miles. I paddled the two-person IK with Claire and eventually found out that I could greatly increase the comfort and efficiency by sitting on the thwart. We had a few more nice riffles including Basalt Rapid and the scenery improved with growing basalt cliffs. We saw several large groups of bighorn sheep including a group of about 50. A nasty headwind was the status quo. I felt lousy all day long. Everybody pretty much collapsed in exhaustion at our lunch spot. We worked very hard to make 23 miles this day. We searched several times for a good camp and ended up with an only OK one. Camp was still windy but thankfully the gusting and snadblasting stopped.

Day 3 we pushed to go 25 miles. We stopped to check out some petrogylphs at Potlatch Canyon but otherwise paddled and paddled. The trees were becoming less numerous but there were still some very nice basalt cliffs on the outside of river bends. Lots of paddling, lots of sun, lots of basalt. Still sick. Kids had fun. Once again we passed the best camps that were already occupied and made due with a single tree camp. Another windy night but thankfully reducing intensity. 

For our last day we still had 15 miles to go. Finally with a break from the wind I flew my drone for a short aerial view of some of the sweeping river meanders near camp. Claire was quite insistent on trying out a packraft and so she paddled the first hour or so including some particularly splashy riffles she loved. The scenery was more desolate but some nice basalt cliffs and spires remained. We finally spotted the Cottonwood Bridge a little after 1pm which relieved us all I think. Graciously Keith gave us a pass on the full derigging and so after a busy hour of helping we set off to get kids food and camp.

So that was the John Day River. I'm sure it would be better appreciated if Heather and I were not sick for the whole trip, we did not have heinous headwinds and sandblasted nights, got better camps, and did not have to fight with long days to make progress on the river. The scenery was nice but largely unchanging over 70 miles. The lack of whitewater left me wanting. The group was good. The fishing looked great if that is your thing. It was nice to log more river miles. Thanks very much to Keith for leading the trip.

Agua Azul & Rio Shumulja April 1

 

This was perhaps the one day of the trip I was most looking forward to, the grand finale, a packraft run of Agua Azul and Rio Shumulja. It. Did. Not. Disappoint. The photos and video perhaps say it all but it is a ethereal milky blue-green hypersaturated river with miles of travertine dams to over 50 feet in height. I've been on similar milky travertine rivers (Little Colorado, Fossil Creek), but nothing with features and volume at this scale. And the horizonlines! Paddling right up to the calm edge of a falls and peering over to scout a line down feature after feature is unforgettable. I'll admit to being a little nervous, even after (or perhaps because of) Rocky taking the time to show me his lines down many of the features. My main concern was the stickiness of the travertine and whether the flow of water was spread too thinly over the dams for me to actually paddle my packraft over. From the tourist viewpoint area we would pick one of about four river channels with many steep drops for the first mile. Then we would have another flatter mile with the full volume of the river. That would lead us into the final half mile where the river drop about 80 meters through five monster waterfalls (frontispiece). At the confluence with the Rio Shumulja Rocky, Sam, and I would meet the rest of the group that had rafted down the river to that point.

Thankfully the drive to Agua Azul was shorter than the drive to the start of the Usumacinta trip but it was still an adventure between the overabundant speed bumps and the unauthorized road blocks we had to go through to get there. Notably several boys boldly pulling streamers across the road when the saw our van and our Mexican driver blasting right through their roadblock with little hesitation. I inflated and got ready where we parked our van, close enough to hear the roar of the river but out of sight of most. When all was set to go Sam and I were ushered through the narrow gaps between the different shops and out to the boardwalk viewpoint, which had a surreal quality to it given all the watchful eyes. We hopped over the guard rails and into the water. Perfect temperature again! From this point on it was all smiles all day long! 

We did not dally at the tourist pool long, just long enough for the three of us to get in the water and snap a photo, and then powered on downstream. I followed Rocky closely initially given that he'd been down this river probably over a dozen times. In sight of all the touristas I followed him down the first short fall of a few feet with an awkward friction-y flop and then attempted to do the same down the next falls. Here I came to a complete stop on the edge of the falls, throwing my boat and jumping over after it in sight of many. Embarrassing, oh well. Fortunately I learned from this that Rocky did not always have my flat bottomed fabric boat in mind when picking his line. I ultimately made my own decisions on the rest of the run and faired much better. I had maybe one or two other awkward friction flops but no more crashing halts.

We followed the branch with the most water and soon found ourselves needing to portage several drops. Rocky quickly scouted an adjacent channel before deciding we were best off in the one we were already in. It turns out the record floods in November 2020 did a number on this river, dramatically changing the appearance of many of the drops. It was easy to imagine a fast moving log blowing out a travertine dam and changing the drop. Throughout the run we saw several abandoned channels and reorganized dams. In hindsight this is probably one of the most dynamic rivers I've ever been on.

Despite the portages Sam and I were have an excellent time with constant ear to ear smiles. I had two silly flips on the run (no big deal) I was not proud of but otherwise had a great time enjoying every blue pools and fun little falls. Again it is hard to put into words. Perfect temperature blue-green waters, fun rapids, beautiful waterfalls, bright partially cloudy sky. Rocky mentioned how lucky we were to have these perfect conditions; the experience certainly would not have been the same if we had muddy brown flood waters instead.

Boof Grande looked a little sloppy with a retentive base and a messy lead-in with vines blocking the best approach. Sam ended up being the only one of us that ran it; he ended up offside at the bottom and got flipped and bounced a bit but fairly quickly managed to escape. In hindsight I think not trying the drop was my only regret on the run; I think I would have liked to have seen what would have happened (but maybe not!).

Boof Grande

As all the distributed flow from the multiple channels accumulated into one, the river gradient reduced and we had nice long pools interspersed with short drop travertine dam complexes. Closer to the final five falls were some more complex falls including a particularly bouncy high flow rapid I particularly enjoyed (next image below). 

Shortly on we could see the mother of all horizonlines approaching us. Carefully we beached our boats on mid-river rocks and walked the grippy sloping sheet of water out to where we could get a view below. Cascada Uno. Stunning!!! It did not take me long to decide that the uniformly thin sheet of water on this drop was not going to be for me and my packraft and so I opted to jump the first 30 foot drop and then the second 25 foot drop. 

I found a place below to pull out my drone and had a great time getting aerial shots of Sam and Rocky running the two drops of Cascada Uno and then sending the drone down to the confluence to see the remaining four waterfalls. The roar of the falls and thickness of mist here were amazing. Once Rocky and Sam were down, the drone actually ended up being fairly useful scouting the best line down Cascada Dos. Rocky went first with me videoing, then Sam and I followed. 

Cascada Uno

Looking downstream at Cascada Dos

Cascada Dos was also not going to be great in a packraft with a messy leadup to the main drop. I followed the others line down the left bank until it seemed like the right place to get out. This falls was messier than I thought and I actually struggled for a couple minutes to find a safe way down; no me gusta. I ended up hucking my boat ahead, fighting the strong current up to a place where I could jump into a hanging pool and swim strongly to the one spot that wouldn't suck me over the final falls. Once up it was an easy stroll down a thin cascade to my waiting boat. 

Cascada Dos

Below Cascada Dos

As much fun as that was Rocky made it fairly clear that Cascada Tres and Quatro were no joke (including a 50+ foot single drop) and we climbed up ant-covered trees on the right bank of the river to gain the portage trail. Portaging was alright though I did have to constantly watch to avoid thorny plants coming in contact with my boat. Cascada Quatro looked terrifying from the portage trail and there was not much room between Tres and Quatro to collect yourself.

Cascada Quatro (from portage)

We scrambled about 50m down a seemingly impossibly steep slope by dropping and catching boats and paddles about 10m at a time. Once down we paddled to the upstream end of the final cascade where we met up with the rest of the group. I took some time climbing up the side of the final falls to check out the fourth falls. Both were impressive. I was tempted to jump Cascada Cinco but ultimately decided not to stress out the guides. I downed some cheese and avocado (and water for the first time) at this impromptu lunch stop before it was time to head off.

Cascada Quatro

Cascada Cinco and the Rio Shumulja confluence

Cascada Cinco had a particularly nice low angle rainbow in its heavy mist. The Rio Shumulja changes color dramatically after it receives the Agua Azul; more of a deeper blue-green than the Agua Azul's baby blue. The first rapid was a fun right-to-left bouncy ride. The second rapid funneled chaotically into a nasty hole I could not see a way out of other than luck; all elected to portage. Many crystal clear karst springs entered the river in this area. Some of the water was so clear you almost could not see it.

The portage (worse than it looks)

The river continued through this lush limestone gorge with intermittent springs and waterfalls. All too soon the river opened up into a wider shallower, less riffled river but still magically colored. We would have only gone 1.5 miles down the Rio Shumulja from the Agua Azul confluence to the standard takeout but the November storms apparently wash out road access and so we paddled a full 6.5 miles of the Rio Shumulja to the lofty suspension bridge near Agua Clara. While this added little exciting whitewater, it was scenic enough and a nice palette cleanser for the earlier excitement. Sadly, the November flood seemed to wash an unrecoverable amount of trash along the river. There were many groups, especially kids, swimming in the river along the way, everyone friendly. Many of us were jealous of their backyard swimming hole.

Our takeout in sight

View from the suspension bridge

It ended up being just before dark by the time we got everything loaded back on the vans and set off. It was a long drive through heavy rain, dropping off various passengers and gear, before finally making it to Palenque. I ended up having a tasty dinner with Rocky and the guides (amazing watermelon agua fresca!), but regrettably I was past the point of exhaustion and struggled to eat what was otherwise an excellent meal. Back at the hotel I packed for the early morning bus the next day. I slept exhausted but satisfied. Big thanks to Rocky for this one! A very memorable day!