Thursday we spent time at a National Monument close by. We had the opportunity to see more about the Ancestral Puebloans. The Monument is located on the Great Sage Plain, an expansive, dry plateau with lots of canyons throughout. It contains the highest recorded density of prehistoric and historic sites in N. America. Thousands of sites have been recorded with thousands more to be found. Throughout the Monument are 5 pueblos, two at the visitor centre.
At the visitor centre is an amazing museum. Our National Parks pass gave us free admission to the museum. There was a timeline of the various times of the Puebloans and the differences between them. There were also great displays of clothing, jewellery, cooking and storing pots and even their weapons. Explanations were included as well as information about how artifacts were found. They had also reconstructed a pit house inside the museum.
After watching a film at the visitor centre we headed out to one of the Ancestral Puebloan villages, about 40 km away. The film included information about how to respect the land we were going to see. It also talked about how the ideas relating to understanding the Ancestral Puebloans had changed over the last 20 years or so. Much of the history of the indigenous people is carried from generation to generation through oral history. Because of this, archeologists and researchers are involving current day Puebloans in their studies.
Lowry Pueblo is an Ancient Puebloan village from about 1000 years ago. It was inhabited for about 165 years. By the time it was finished, it included 40 rooms, 8 kivas. and a Great Kiva.
This was the only pueblo we were able to go into and it was only a very small area.
By this time it was mid afternoon and we decided to head back to the trailer to enjoy our quiet campsite. It was nice sitting out by the river. Paul started a campfire and we decided to make supper outside too!
While we were out, we were visited by 4 deer.
We were treated to a beautiful sunset to finish off the day. Tomorrow we move on.
Following Joyce & Paul's Travels in Retirement 