Anasazi Cultural Center, Cortez, CO

I went out and looked at the moon last night and it was beautiful!   So bright, glowing in the black sky.  

Time to leave Moab and head to Cortez and Mesa Verde National Park.  Stopped by the Wicked Brew again for our lattes.  This was the same drive-thru espresso place that we went to yesterday.  They had a funny sign on the side of the building about not being "Starbucks" and instructing us to order small, medium, or large.  I was reminded of a co-worker I had that refused to order a "tall" coffee at Starbucks because it was really a small :-)  I had a hazelnut latte that was heavenly!  Dave had his usual large latte, but they only did shots of espresso in increments of 2 so he had 4!  Whoa!  I thought I was a heavy duty coffee drinker...

On to Cortez, the drive was about 2 hours.  Dave and I were both surprised by the terrain.  It became mostly pasture and farmland.  We expected to continue seeing more desert area, but were pleasantly surprised.  When we arrived, our hotel room wasn't ready yet, so we headed out to the Cortez Information Center to take a look.  The man who helped us gave us some information about Canyon of the Ancients, which is a new National Monument.  It was created last year, but they don't have much funding yet.  The Anasazi Cultural Center is the monument headquarters right now, so we decided to check it out.

The center was fabulous!  As you came through the parking lot there was a small pueblo ruin in front of the building - Dominguez Pueblo.  Inside, there were lots of hands-on exhibits where you could pick up items and look at them through a microscope, or try your hand at weaving and/or grinding corn.  Plus, all kinds of archaeological information, history of the Ancestral Pueblo Indians, and a lot of photographs of the various digs.  They had a replica of one of the pit structures that had been dug near there that was really fascinating.   Most of the structure would have been underground.  Then, we went on a short hike to see Escalante Pueblo at the top of a hill overlooking McPhee Reservoir.  

There was a volunteer, Dennis, up there who used a compass to show that the kiva was pointing due North.  He went on to explain that they probably used the sun and a stick to mark the shadow of the stick from sunset to sundown.  That would give them East and West, then use that to find North.  So interesting...

We went back to the gift shop to pick up a few items and I took some pictures of the beautiful flower beds outside the center.  They had a lot of the same wildflowers we have in Texas - echinacea, blanket flower, mexican hat, wine cup - plus a lot of columbine.  Robert, the clerk who had waited on us, saw me taking pictures and brought out a print out of the flowers so I could have additional information.  :-)

Back to Cortez to check in, have lunch, and do laundry.  Kind of a reality check...