I wanted to mention one more hike we did at Mesa Verde as it was our favorite one. The Petroglyph Point Trail is a moderate 2.4 mile loop trail complete with narrow passages, lots of stone steps, fabulous canyon views and even some rock petroglyphs.
This was a really neat loop trail and began just beside the Chapin Museum near the Spruce Tree House. It begins at the trailhead for the Spruce Tree House but branches off a little way downhill. We would have loved to do the Spruce Tree House as well but it has been closed until next year due to safety issues.
Once we branched off on the Petroglyph Point Trail we continued on until the paved path turned into a dirt and rocky path. We continued going down into Spruce Canyon and once in the canyon we began to climb again. As we climbed we were walking along the face of the rimrock where the natives built most of their homes. This trail offered lots of great vistas and several good looks at the Spruce Tree House.
There were some interesting (but not real difficult) challenges along this trail. The most interesting part of the trail was a narrow slot (tunnel?) through the rocks. Several rock steps on the trail made many of the climbs easier. As we were walking we always had our eyes on alert to see the petroglyphs.
Once we were already on down the trail I suddenly realized I forgot to pinpoint exactly where the petroglyphs were but I remembered reading that they were quite obvious. Well I am here to say that they weren’t obvious to us as we apparently walked right past them and never saw them on the trail. Not a big worry as we have seen many petroglyphs but a bit of a disappointment anyway.
We did, however, spot a few ruins among the cliffs and also saw a sandstone wall that had grooves in it where apparently the natives sharpened their tools. Most likely spears and digging sticks were sharpened by scraping them against the rough sandstone.
When we started the trail we went to the right and near the end of the trail it became quite a scramble going back to the left up over the rim rock. Once atop the rimrock though the trail was mostly level all the way back to the trailhead. I was glad we took the trail the way we did because I would rather have scrambled up the last big climb than having to go straight down it.
Another great hike in the books…
NOTE: We are leaving Bluff Utah this morning and moving on to Monument Valley Utah for one night…
Certainly looks to be a bit of variety on the hike even without finding glyphs.
ReplyDeleteDownhill is always more scary when it is steep for me too.
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